The Happenings II
by Azaelia Silmarwen
Summary: Albion is now a united land, a kingdom of peace, but will an unknown enemy destrot everything the Hero of Bowerstone fought to create or will it help create another Hero? BETA WANTED.
1. And So It Begins

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING TO DO WITH THE FABLE GAMES**

**It is recommended that you read The Happenings I first, or at least the last chapter. **

**WARNING: THIS STORY CONTAINS REFERENCES TO FABLE III**

**Now, on to the story, enjoy (hopefully). :D**

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><p><strong>PART ONE:<strong>

**CHAPTER ONE: AND SO IT BEGINS**

Twenty-seven years had passed since Lucien's defeat and Albion was one of the most desirable and wealthy countries around. The economy was doing very well, due to the might Hero Lionheart's generosity; houses were cheaper to rent which meant nobody was living on the streets, and most regions were now free of bandits, Hobbes and many other dark creatures that use to threaten defenceless travellers.

Our story takes place on the yearly celebration of peace to Albion. People from all corners of Albion would come to Bowerstone Market where the celebrations were always held. It was classified as the best day of the year and it was the one day that the young Prince Logan always looked forward to. At the present time, he was fidgeting as he sat on his parent's bed, as they got ready for the celebrations.

'Logan, please stop fidgeting. We'll get there in time.' His mother told his softly.

Logan looked over at his mother. In his opinion, his mother was the most beautiful woman in the entire universe and the most caring. While she looked as though she was twenty-eight years old, she was in fact fifty-five years old, something Logan found very hard to believe, but he could never tell if she was joking about her age or being serious. His mother had light brown, waist length hair that looked as though it had golden streaks in it in certain lights, soft and caring light green eyes and soft white skin, at least he assumed his mother's skin was naturally white. He never really knew for she was always wearing long sleeves and her dress always fell to the ground, no matter what the weather was like and the skin that you could see was thickly applied with make-up. Logan had never seen his mother without make-up nor without an item of clothing that seemed to cover nearly every inch of her skin. But the one thing that made his mother stand out among the crowd wasn't her beauty or her kind heart, but rather her height. The Queen of Albion was the tallest lady in Albion; in fact she was taller than all men.

'Leave him alone, my beloved,' Logan's father said, walking out of the bathroom already dressed in his royal suit. 'He's just excited about the celebrations. Not everyone can be boring like you!' he added teasingly, before ducking as his mother sent a cushion flying at him.

Logan smiled as he watched his parents. Every movement they made showed how much they loved each other. Even the way they talked to each other was full of love, especially when the king called the queen his beloved. At first Logan thought that his father was just calling his mother that to say that he loved her, but he soon discovered that his mother's name actually meant "beloved", so his father was still call his mother by her name, when you think about it.

Logan turned his attention to his father who was currently looking for his hooded cloak. Just like his mother, Logan's father looked younger than he really was. When you first looked at him, you'd think that he was thirty years old, but then you looked more closely and you could see a sort of wisdom in his eyes. A wisdom that could not be obtained in a library or bookstore. Anyway, every time Logan asked his father how old he was, he would not answer, but if his mother was in the room she would call his father ancient saying that he was five hundred and something years old. Logan knew that his mother was joking when she said that, even though she would always say that she was being quite serious. Logan's father was also quite handsome. He had dark brown hair and dark green eyes, which seemed to hold some secret past. He also had a small brown chin puff and a birth mark underneath one of his eyes that looked strangely like a love heart. His mother always said it was a love heart because he was showing off what a lovable man he was. She always said it jokingly for it was a private joke that Logan never understood. Anyway, despite his father obvious good looks, the king always insisted on wearing a hooded cloak so no one could see what he looked like. In fact, nobody did know what the king looked like except Logan and the queen. Logan was warned years ago that he was never allowed to tell anybody what his father looked like, something Logan didn't understand. In fact, there were a lot of things about his parents he didn't understand. Like why his father always seemed to disappear from time to time or why he father always said that people had a death wish when they annoyed the queen saying that she was a fearless warrior. How could his mother be a fearless warrior when she was clearly couldn't hurt a fly?

'Amy, where's my hooded cloak?' Logan's father asked, interrupting Logan from his thoughts.

'It should be on the bed where you left it, River.' answered the Amy, getting up to help River look.

'Well it's not there now. Logan, have you seen it?'

'No Daddy.' Logan answered.

River groaned and looked under the bed.

'Why do you need it anyway, Daddy?' Logan asked innocently. 'Wouldn't it be more fun and cooler to go without it?'

'Indeed it would, my son, but I must not leave or be seen without it on.' answered River, he was now looking in the wardrobe again.

'But why?' whined Logan.

'You'll understand when you're older, Logan.'

'And when will that be? Will it be next year when I'm six or in many more years' time?' demanded Logan.

'It will be when you are ready to handle the truth.' Amy answered gently, before walking over to Storm, her old dog. 'Come on, hope off River's cloak, boy.'

Storm cocked his head back and forth innocently.

'Storm, I know that you've got it.' laughed Amy.

Storm seemed to groaned and hopped out of bed, revealing River's cloak.

'How - when did he take it?' exclaimed River, walking over and taking his cloak off Amy, who was getting the dog hairs off it.

'Probably when we had our backs turned,' mused Amy. 'I've noticed that he has been taking many things lately, and I don't know why.'

'Probably just a faze,' shrugged River as he put on his cloak and hid his face. He obliviously thought it was nothing to worry about.

'Maybe,' muttered Amy, but she didn't look convinced.

'Mummy? Daddy? Can we go know?' Logan asked, standing up on their bed.

'Yes, I think we can go know, but first, come here and put on your crown.' answered Amy, trying to put the young prince's crown on.

'Why do I have to wear it? I hate wearing it!' complained Logan.

'You sound like your father,' mutter Amy.

'Oi!' River exclaimed.

'That was a compliment, dear.'

'Sure it was,' mumbled River, before taking Logan in his arms and leading the way to the carriages.

'Daddy! I can walk!' said Logan.

'Oh really?' River asked slowly, before he started to tickle his son.

'Daddy! Let go! Stop it, please!' giggled Logan. 'Mummy! Tell him to stop!'

'Come on River, leave him alone.' laughed Amy, stopping in front of them.

'Lucky Mummy was there to save you,' joked River, putting his son down.

'More like lucky you had stopped. After all, nobody messes with a mother's greatest treasure.' Amy laughed, wrapping her arm around River's waist.

'Nobody should mess with a mother when their child is in danger.' agreed River as they continued down towards the carriage. 'Especially when that child is yours.'

'Good morning your majesties and your highness,' the carriage man said, when the family arrived outside.

'Good morning to you too, Nick.' Amy greeted, before helping her son inside.

On the short journey to Bowerstone Market, Logan listened as his mother complained about no longer being able to walk or run anywhere any more. Logan couldn't imagine in mother running.

The celebrations began like all the past celebrations. Queen Amy welcomed them all before going off to mingle with her people to see what areas need improvement and just to get a general gist of what her people were feeling. King River normally sat on his throne watching everything that was happening, but Logan swore that his father's gaze never left him as he explored Bowerstone. Sometimes he would try to talk with the other kids but they always acted weird around him so he was never able to make any friends. His parents and Storm were his only friends as well as a few members of staff.

Then, as the sun was setting, Amy announced that the entertainment for the festival was about to begin and everyone went to take their seats. Amy and River sat on their thrones, while Logan sat excitedly on the edge of the platform the thrones were on.

'Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, Queen Amy, King River and Prince Logan, it is my pleasure to announce that this year we will be re-counting the tale of the mighty Lionheart and Lord Lucien Fairfax's downfall.' announced the gypsy storyteller. Many people began muttering amongst themselves excitedly.

Logan moved closer to the edge eagerly. He had heard his people talking about this mighty Hero, but every time he asked his parents about her they would either change the subject or tell him to go outside and play.

As the storyteller began the story, Logan looked back at his parents. He couldn't tell what his father was thinking, but his mother looked highly amused, though he couldn't see anything funny. It must be an adult thing, but as he looked around, he saw none of the adults looking amused. Logan shrugged it off and listened to the story.

'Little is known of the beautiful but brave Lionheart's past except the fact that she seemed to appear out of nowhere once she had defeated the bandit leader Thag the Impatient, who had a nasty habit of ambushing defenceless travellers and traders.' The storyteller said, once everyone had quietened down. 'At first the people didn't know what to think of her. After all, she was an eighteen year old girl running around in her bra and pauper skirt and boots, geared up with weapons that most ladies wouldn't even dare to look at, with her faithful dog by her side. So she was given some praise for defeating Thag, but then it became old news and the people forgot about it. Then, out of the blue, the news reached us that she had defeated another bandit leader; Dash. This of course sparked a lot of interest. Who was this girl? Where did she come from? Was she in fact some sort of elite guard undercover to defeat all bandits? No one knew, until twenty-seven years ago when we all learnt the truth. She was one her way to defeating Lucien. Why she was to defeat Lucien? From what we know, she had to stop him from destroying our beloved Albion.

'After her victory, the Hero had become a threat to bandits and the bandits didn't appreciate it, but her victory was necessary to prove herself to the Abbott of the Temple of Light, at the time. She proved herself to be a capable warrior and thus was given the duty to protect the Abbott's adopted daughter, Sister Hannah. Little did we know that the Hero was in fact very interested in this young female monk, and so the Hero helped the monks of the Temple of Light in the ritual of the Golden Oak, but it was not a day to be celebrated. One of Lucien's men came and tried to take Sister Hannah and when she refused, he murdered her father. This led to his own death, and after the Abbott's funeral, the truth was revealed to Sister Hannah about her role in Lucien's downfall, and hence, the Hero of Strength appeared to the world known as Hammer. Months past from this meeting where the Hero accomplished many more quests, during which time, Hammer came to terms of her beloved father's death and her role in the future. After defeating a hundred hollow men in the Bowerstone Cemetery, bringing peace to a man and his ex-lover's ghost, and searching Albion for hidden artefacts, the Hero was once more on the lookout for another Hero, the Hero of Will.

'The Hero of Will turned out to be a scholar that went by the name of Garth. The Hero's journey led her to Brightwood where she arrived too late to stop Lucien getting his hands on this mage and scholar. Due to this dilemma, the Hero had to find a way into the Tattered Spire, and what better way to do this than to prove one's self worthy of being in Lucien's army than by becoming victorious is the famous arena in Westcliffe; the Crucible. To say that the Hero was victorious would have been an understatement. She smashed all the current records; including Mad-Dog "The Strangler" McGraw, and to this day, no one has been able to beat her score. Upon her victory, she helped those that needed help before leaving for the Spire, never knowing whether she will see our beloved Albion again. After ten years, the people of Albion believed that they would never see her again and then she appeared once more with Garth right beside her. She had done the unspeakable and had escaped from the Spire!

'So now the Hero had two other Heroes by her side, but there was one more that she needed to find...The Hero of Skill. During her long absence, Hammer had discovered that the Hero of Skill was the Pirate King, Reaver. But please don't be mistaken by the name. It is not Reaver the first, the first pirate king after Captain Dread five hundred years ago -'

'You sure about that?' Logan heard his father chuckle quietly. This comment confused Logan. Of course it had to be a different Reaver. No one could live that long and still look young, screw the young part; no one could even live that long at all.

'- but rather one of his descendants. Scary enough, all his descendant's look exactly the same -'

'I can't believe people are so gullible,' River chuckled again.

'But if they weren't, you would have had killed all of Bloodstone by now.' Amy said pointedly.

'Not all of them. Only the ones that annoyed me.' disagreed River.

Logan looked back at his parents. What were they talking about, and what did they mean about River killing people? River wasn't a murderer. He wasn't like a pirate, bandit or Reaver!

'Anyway, after playing a few "games" with the pirate and avoiding Lucien's men, the Hero now had all three Heroes by her side and together they represented the last of all Heroes in Albion.' The storyteller said, interrupting Logan's thoughts. 'The details on what happened next are unclear, but what we do know is that they all ended up in the Spire and it was there that Lucien met his untimely death. And it was there that a wish was made...the Hero's wish. She was given the choice to bring back all those that had died in the making of the Spire, bring back her beloved dog, Storm, whom Lucien had killed, or to have more wealth than could be imagined.'

Logan had given a start when he heard the name of the dog. Could it be that his mother's beloved dog could be the one in the story? Nah, his mother's dog couldn't be Lionheart's dog, for the storyteller just said that the Hero was selfless and had wished for sacrifice. Besides, if Storm was Lionheart's dog, that would make his mother Lionheart, and that was just impossible. Logan's mother was to gentle and kind too be anything like Lionheart.

'- after Lucien's defeat no one knows what ever happened to Hammer, Garth and Reaver,' the storyteller continued. Logan hadn't realised that he had been lost in thoughts for a while. 'But Lionheart came back and protected Albion's people. A year later, Reaver appeared and everyone began to believe that Lionheart Reaver were starting to fall in love for they were always together. For nearly three years they were together, but then Lionheart disappeared and was never seen again,' the storyteller finished mysteriously.

The people of Albion began to clap and Amy got up and thanked the storyteller for his marvellous tale. She still looked highly amused.

'Mummy, what's so funny?' Logan finally asked, going over and climbing into her lap.

'Yes, your majesty. I saw that you were trying not to laugh during my story.' The storyteller said. He sounded as though he was a little hurt.

'I meant no disrespect, dear storyteller, but I noticed a few parts were slightly exaggerated.' Amy replied, smiling gently.

'But how do you know that, Queen Amy?' asked a young girl with short, curly, blonde hair. 'Did you know Lionheart?'

'One could say that,' said Amy mysteriously.

'Do you know what happened to her, my Queen?' asked a man named Alex urgently. He was the man from the story whose ex-lover asked Lionheart to make him fall in love with her before dumping him painfully.

'Yes,' replied Amy. She was looking at Alex sadly along with some other emotion that Logan did not recognise. 'Her heart was stolen by a thief.'

'So - she is dead then?' Logan asked sadly.

'I never said that, dear one. She's very much alive.'

'But, how can she still be living without her heart?' Logan was very confused.

'Oh, my Logan. I did not mean it literally.' Amy laughed lightly.

'L-literally?' Logan questioned. He hoped one day he would be old enough to use big words too. Until then, he sometimes wished that his parents would use small words.

'What I meant to say was her heart wasn't actually cut out of her chest.'

'Then how did the thief steal her heart?'

'What your mother meant was that the Hero fell in love with the thief.' explained River.

'Oh.'

'Yes,' Amy told them. 'The first time they met, the thief wanted her but she did not like him.'

'If she did not like him, how did she end up loving him?'

'She ended up seeing a side that he had always kept extremely hidden.' Amy explained. 'And it was because of this, that she began to fall for him and after two years, he had stolen her heart, like he had done with many others. Only this time, the thief had fallen deeply in love with her, but he never let anyone know for he was afraid it would destroy his respected, yet feared, imagine on society. Only his beloved Lionheart knew how much he loved her, and he took every opportunity he had to show her.'

'Just like you and Daddy?' Logan asked.

'Yes, just like us. Exactly like us.' agreed River, and Logan was sure that his father was smiling mischievously from underneath the hood. 'As of now, they are happily married with a gorgeous little boy.'

'At least she is happy,' muttered Alex. He missed his friend so much. His wife Jenifer gently put her hand on his shoulder.

Amy was about to tell him something when she suddenly stopped and seemed to be listening to something. River was the same. Both of them were tense, and River slowly stood up drawing his Dragonstomper .48. Logan was surprised that his father was still alive and still had his gun. Walter, a soldier and trusted friend of his parents told him how Reaver shot down everyone that had one.

'Mummy? Daddy? What's wrong?' Logan asked nervously.

They didn't answer.

'Your majesties?' asked Walter, hand gripped tightly on his sword handle.

Yet again, they did not answer.

Instead, Amy stood up, putting Logan gently on the throne, before walking over to River and whispering something very quietly to him that no one could hear. River was about to reply when Logan yelled out to him as something black and cold picked him up. River and Amy both whipped around and saw that a shadow had a tight grip on their most beloved treasure.

'Let his go, Shadow!' ordered River, raising his gun threateningly. It was known throughout the kingdom that King River was an excellent marksman, nearly as good as Reaver, if not equal.

'You are not in a position to give orders, _King River_,' the Shadow said coldly.

'What do you want?' Amy asked coldly.

Logan had never heard such coldness in his mother's voice, nor had anyone else in the kingdom, if their faces were anything to go by. But even though his mother looked frightening, he wanted nothing more to run to her and be held tightly in her warm and loving embrace.

'I am here on behalf of the Shadow Court,' hissed the Shadow. River tensed; something many people noticed. 'You see, they aren't happy with you, _River_. They feel cheated.'

'And why do they feel that way?' asked a hesitant River.

'Your youth,' it answered with a hiss. 'You went to them around five hundred years ago and asked them to keep you young, which they did so willingly for you kept to the contract. But then you feel in love and broke it. They were sad to know they weren't going to be receiving any more sacrifices, but they were happy to know that they would be receiving your youth instead. However, you cheated them. You found a way to stay young without them.' The Shadow's hisses were much colder now. 'So now you must pay and what better way to punish you than with one of your most precious treasures.' The Shadow was slowly disappearing with the terrified Logan. 'And killing your other.' It added before disappearing with Logan.

'LOGAN! NO!' screamed Amy, before she was knocked off the platform by another Shadow. Alex caught her before she hit the ground.

'Thank you, Alex.' Amy said as he put her down.

'My pleasure, your majesty.' Alex said frowning slightly. This was the first time he had ever seen her up close, and there was something very familiar about her. However, he did not have any time to ponder it for his family and the queen were being surrounded by Shadows. However, they were only thirsty for the queen's pure and un-corrupted blood, though they were not going to get it. Amy was angry and she was going to get her son back no matter what the cost, and the first step to finding Logan was to defeat the shadows.

Everyone, except River, looked on in shock as faint blue lines began to glow under the queen's thick make-up before a ring of fire shoot out and away from her killing all the Shadows surrounding her, but not harming the innocent bystanders. It was then that everyone saw the queen in a different light. It was then that they saw that the Hero Lionheart had never abandoned them. It was then that they saw that the Hero Lionheart was in fact their queen.

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><p><strong>Facebook page:<strong> link on profile  
><strong>Written: <strong>2 October 2011


	2. The Darkness

**CHAPTER TWO: THE DARKNESS**

Leaving the shocked crowd behind, Amy stormed up to the castle and into River's and her bedroom, before rummaging around through draws and cupboards.

'Beloved, what are you doing?' River asked when he entered the room. He pulled off his cloak revealing his pale and shaken face.

'What does it look like?' snapped Amy. 'I'm going to the Shadow court and getting my son back!'

'But Amy, we don't know that's where he has been taken -' reasoned River, but he was soon interrupted.

'River, this is the Shadow Court's doing. So where else would they take him?' said Amy as though she was talking to an idiot.

'That's what they want you to think.' argued River. 'Trust me; I know more about them than you do. If you go to the Court you will be walking into a trap!'

'I don't care!'

'Fine. I'll come with -'

'No.'

'No?'

'No, you're not coming with me.' Amy said firmly.

'But Amy -'

'Don't "but Amy" me!' Amy said sternly. 'They are angry with you and are likely to torture you and kill you if they get their hands on you.'

'That's not what I'm worried about.'

'I know. But you don't need to worry about me. I'll be fine.' Amy said gently.

'No matter what I say or do; you're not going to let me come, are you?' River sighed with defeat.

'Nope. I'll tie you to the bed or something to stop you coming.' said a serious Amy.

'Fine. You win.' River unwillingly sighed. 'Just make sure you come back!'

'I will.' Amy smiled, before rummaging through more draws and cupboards.

River watched her quietly for a few minutes before saying, 'Your old questing items are in the chest at the back of the wardrobe.'

'Oh, I forgot I put them there,' muttered Amy as she hurried into the wardrobe before returning moments later with a heavy chest, which she dropped to the ground with a loud bang.

River watched as she undid her hair letting it cascade down her back before she took off her clothes. He then watched as she walked to the bathroom, in her underwear, with a dagger in her hand. River sat patiently on their bed waiting for her to return. When she did exit the bathroom, he couldn't help but get up and embrace her.

'I always did think that you looked more beautiful with short hair and only little bit of make-up with your Will lines showing and tattoo.' he murmured in her ear.

'I missed being able to have short hair and not having to plaster my skin with make-up to hide my Will lines and tattoo.' admitted Amy. 'I'm glad that I no longer need to hind my past, but I wished I could have revealed it under different circumstances.'

'I know, beloved,' River muttered, before allowing her to get dressed.

'I hope I can still fit into my old clothes,' muttered Amy as she began to put on her short, brown hot pants.

'They should. If anything, they probably would be too big after all that celery you ate after Logan's birth.' commented River.

'I didn't eat that much!' exclaimed Amy. She was happy to see that her pants did fit.

'Yes, you did,' argued River. 'Just ask anyone.'

'I'm not going to argue with you about this.' stated Amy, now putting on her corset.

'As you wish.'

Moments later Amy was ready to leave, as was Storm.

'I'm sorry, Storm, but you can't come with me this time.' Amy said, bending down and patting her dear dogs head. 'Look after River for me, won't you?'

Storm barked sadly as if to say, "If I must".

'That's my boy.' smiled Amy before standing up and embracing River. 'I'll be back before you know it.' she said, before kissing him briefly. With one last look at her husband's worried face, Amy took off, ready to find her son.

River and Storm walked out onto the balcony and watched as she flew across the courtyard, before running back to pick up her hat, then running off again. River chuckled. He always had hated that green and red highwayman's hat. He had hated it the moment she appeared in their Bloodstone Manor wearing it.

'I guess it's just you and me now, Storm.' River said quietly to his furry companion, only he wasn't there. 'Storm?' River said looking around. He soon found Storm trying to sneak something into his bed. 'Storm, hand it over.' River said firmly, holding out his hand.

Storm seemed to grumble before dropping the object into River's hand. It was Amy's Guild Seal.

She must have had it in the trunk, thought River, before turning his attention back to Storm.

'Storm, this has to stop.' River began quietly. 'You have to stop -'

'Hello Reaver,' a calm voice interrupted. A voice that sounded a lot like...

'Theresa!' exclaimed a shocked River, jumping to his feet and looking around for the blind Seer. She was nowhere in sight.

'You can stop looking around for me, Reaver.' Theresa's voice said. 'I'm talking to you through the Guild Seal.'

'I knew that,' muttered River, ceasing his search for the Seer. 'And I wasn't looking around.'

Silence followed his statement. The kind that says, "I don't believe you".

'Er, if you are after Amy, she's not here at the present time, but I can let her know that you called -' said River before he was interrupted.

'I am not after the Queen of Albion. I am after you, Reaver.' said Theresa.

'Oh, er, is there a particular reason you wanted to talk to me?' River asked hesitantly.

'Yes. I need you to come to the Spire.' Theresa said, getting straight to the point.

'I would _love_ to go back to that - er - _charming_ place, but I have a slight problem of my own -'

'Reaver, the reason I am asking you to come to the Spire is to do with your son.' Theresa interrupted again. She seemed to like doing that to him, not to mention scaring him.

'Logan? You -'

'Come to the Spire and everything shall be explained.'

'But Amy -'

'Is where she is meant to be and is doing what she is meant to do. Now come.'

River didn't argue, though he didn't have the faintest clue about what Theresa meant about Amy's task. Anyway, he quickly went and changed his clothes, then rushed around the room grabbing everything he needed while Storm laid sulking in his bed.

'Okay, I think that's everything,' mused River, before looking down at Storm. 'Are you ready to go or are you just going to lay there sulking for the rest of the night?'

Storm jumped up barking and ran from the room, only stopping every now and then to make sure River was following him.

In order to get to the Spire, River had to take care of a few things first. The first order of business was who was going to run the kingdom in his and Amy's absence and he knew the perfect man for the job...Walter. River found Walter in Bowerstone, still trying to settle the crowd, though they did go silent when they spotted the hooded River walking towards them.

'River, Amy went flying through here only moments ago in the direction of Bower Lake -' Walter began, but River cut him off.

'Yeah, I know. She's off to Wraithmarsh.' said River. 'Listen Walter, I'm going to be gone for a while so I'm leaving you in charge.'

'If that is your wish,' mutter Walter. He didn't look to happy about it.

'It is. I do not know how long I will be gone nor do I know how long Amy will be gone.' said River as he scanned the crowd.

'Is there anything else you would like me to do?' asked Walter.

'Now that you mention it, yes. Please round up a dozen or so soldier that can leave at a moment's notice. We might need them to find Logan.' River said, still scanning the crowd.

'I'll do it the moment I get this crowd under control,' answered Walter.

River nodded his head to Walter and began to move through the crowd to the man he had been looking for; Norman, one of his most trusted men. River had found Norman barely alive when he was five years old and had taken him in. Since then, Norman worked loyally and even became River's first mate (ship speaking).

'Norman,' called river, motioning for the man to follow him somewhere private.

Once they were away from the curious crowds and were somewhere where they wouldn't be interrupted, River took off his hood.

'It is good to see you again, Reaver!' grinned Norman, clasping River's hand, though his grin didn't last long. 'I'm sorry about your son. If there is anything I can do to help, don't hesitate to ask.'

'That's what I wanted to talk to you about.' admitted River. 'I need you to get the men together ready to sail for the Spire as soon as possible.'

'Of course, but why do you want to go to that cursed place again?' asked a horrified Norman.

'I don't have a choice. That blind Seer has information about Logan, so I can't pass it up.' explained River.

'But, didn't Lionheart go after the boy?'

'She's got it stuck in her head that he's being held in the Shadow Court.' River sighed sadly.

'But you disagree,' noted Norman.

'Of course I disagree. You know better than anyone how long I've known them. It just doesn't seem right. Then again, this entire situation doesn't seem right.' said a worried River.

'You'll get your little boy back.' Norman said confidently, before leaving to kick the crew out of the Cow and Corset.

Hours later, the Reaver II had made port in the Spire and River was walking towards the great white light where the room Lucien had met his demise laid behind. The moment River entered the room, a familiar voice met his ears, and he inwardly groaned.

'...but why do we need _him_, Theresa?' demanded Hammer, the Hero of Strength.

'I agree with Hammer,' commented Garth, the Hero of Will. 'He helped us once, but it was unwillingly. He has betrayed Hero a number of times already, so what is stopping him from betraying Hero or us again? Or even taking advantage of her misfortune in some way? We all know how much he fancied her.'

'You are worrying for no reason, and everything will be revealed in time.' Theresa said calmly. 'Welcome Reaver,' she added without turning around, but Hammer and Garth did whip around towards the door. Both of them held dislike, distrust and distain on their faces as they glared at him.

'Hmm, I didn't know that we were having a reunion,' River said accusingly to Theresa as he walked towards them. How he hated these people, but he would try to be civil to them...for Amy.

'We're not here for a reunion, Reaver!' snapped Hammer. 'We're here to -'

'I'm very well aware of the reason why we are here, my dear.' interrupted River coldly. 'So may I suggest we get down to business?'

'Shouldn't we wait for Hero?' asked Garth.

'She will not be coming.' Theresa stated calmly. 'She is currently in Wraithmarsh slaughtering the Shadow leaders in the Shadow Court.'

'Then why did you call us?' asked Hammer. 'If Sparrow is already there then that means she will have her son and will be coming back.'

'Logan isn't with the Shadow Court.'

'I knew it,' muttered River.

Garth glanced at him curiously, but chose to ask Theresa a question rather than ask what River meant.

'If the Shadow Court doesn't have him, then who does?'

'It is a terrible enemy, the Lord of all Darkness. For years it has lied low in Aurora, waiting for its chance to seize hold of Albion and Aurora. It has now obtained its chance.' explained Theresa.

'You know I hate it when you speak in riddle.' stated Hammer. 'What has this got to do with Sparrow's son?'

'The Shadow Court was angry with Reaver for breaking their contract and still being able to remain young, so they called for help with fellow darkness and the darkness in Aurora told them that they should use Logan to get back at Reaver.' explained Theresa. The moment that River was mentioned, Garth and Hammer's glares increased dramatically. 'However, they see Logan as the key to taking Albion and they know that his parent's would do anything to get him back, and with the King and Queen of Albion out of the way, it believes that it can conquer all with its biggest threats gone.'

'Well it got that wrong,' mutter Hammer angrily. 'So, where exactly in Aurora is it?'

'It is on the far coast of Aurora in the darkest cavern. It is surrounded by desert on three sides and ocean on the fourth.'

'So we'll go by sea then.' River said.

Theresa nodded.

'You should go and go back to Bowerstone Market.' said Theresa. 'By the time you arrive, you should meet Sparrow there. And Reaver,' she added.

'Hmm?'

'Take this. It will allow me to talk to all four of you at the same time and for you to communicate with each other.' She said, handing him a Guild Seal.

'Thanks,' River muttered, before leading the way back to the Reaver II.

'Reaver, is all your business here done?' asked Norman as River and his companions climbed back on deck.

'Yes, take us back to Oakfield.'

'Yes, sir.'

River went and stood leaning on one side of the ship, leaning on the rail hoping that Hammer and Garth would leave him alone...he wasn't in luck.

'Listen Reaver, before we see Sparrow, we want to get a few things straight.' Hammer said seriously, joining him at the rail with Garth right beside her. 'Firstly, if you hurt Sparrow, or take advantage of her in anyway, you will get my hammer -'

'Don't you dare lecture or threaten me!' hissed River, turning to glare at them. 'It has been twenty-seven years since both of you have seen her and me, and in those years a lot has changed!'

With that said, River went to storm way but before he had even gone ten paces he heard Hammer give a little scream as something furry ran and jumped up at her knocking her to the ground -with his sudden appearance - before licking her face.

River turned around and looked at what had happened before smirking.

'Come on Storm, hop off her.' River said calmly.

Storm obliged and went and stood to the side of her.

'Storm?' muttered a surprised Hammer. 'But - how is that possible?'

'Lucien only seriously wounded him,' explained River.

'Okay, then what is he doing here with you and how do you know that?' asked Garth.

'Storm's dear mistress told me and left him in my care.' shrugged River.

'You lie! Sparrow would never leave Storm with you.' snapped Hammer.

'Why don't you ask her when you see her,' suggested an expressionless River, before he went and joined Norman at the wheel.

When the four companions eventually arrived back in Bowerstone Market, they all glanced towards the Bowerstone Bridge and saw an angry, upset and muddy Amy walking across with people bowing to her politely and giving he their sympathy for the loss of Logan.

Storm gave out a bark and ran towards her, before leading her back to where the other three Heroes were standing. Amy gave River a funny look and he knew that she was wondering if he was River or Reaver, so he decided to tell her by acting like Reaver.

'Well, if it isn't the Queen of Albion,' he said mockingly. 'How nice to see you again, my dear.'

'Nice to see you too, Reaver.' Amy said in a dead voice. 'Hammer, Garth, what are you all doing here?'

'Where here to help you rescue your son.' Hammer answered gentle. 'Theresa called us and told us all what happened.'

'Of course Theresa would know what has happened,' Amy said with a hollow laugh. 'But I don't know where Logan is.'

'We do,' said Garth. 'He's in Aurora.'

'Aurora? But what is he doing there?' asked a shocked Amy.

'We'll explain later,' promised Hammer.

'Well, this reunion has been a real joy, but if you don't mind, I'd rather we go now seeing as I have better things to do with my time then rescuing snotty little brats.' River said making the people around them, Hammer and Garth glare at him in shock and anger but Amy got the message. River was telling them that they had better hurry up and save Logan before anything bad happened to him.

'You're right, we should leave now.' agreed Amy.

'Amy!' yelled Walter as he hurried over to her. 'Did you find him?'

'No. The shadows knew that I would turn up. It was a trap. They were just disappointed that River wasn't with me.' answered an upset Amy. Hammer went and put her arm around her old friend. 'How are things here?'

'There have been no dramas so far and I have assembled a dozen soldiers to go with you to find Logan as River requested.' Walter reported.

'In that case, can you go get them and tell them to meet us in, um...'

'Oakfield.' finished River.

'Very well. Do you have any messages for me to give River?'

'No.'

'Very well, I shall go get the soldiers.'

'Thank you Walter.' Amy said. Walter gave her a slight bow and hurried back to the castle. 'Well, we might as well head off.' Amy added to her companions. They all nodded and together they walked back to Oakfield.

The whole journey back to Oakfield ended up giving River an enormous headache seeing as Hammer did not shut up. She spent the whole time talking to Amy about the warrior monks, what had happened to her since their last meeting, asking continuous questions about the Temple of Light, live as a Queen, about Albion, about Logan and when they finally reached Oakfield she asked Amy about her husband.

'River? What about him?' asked Amy, with a slight glance at River who was walking ahead of them with Garth and Storm.

'Come on. I want to know all about him. How you met. What he looks like. And all those other details.' laughed Hammer.

'I met him while I was questing in Bloodstone twenty-seven years ago, no sorry, I lie. I first met him in Bowerstone's Cow and Corset, shortly after I met you.' said Amy. 'At the time I thought he was an arrogant, vain whore, but at the same time is was very handsome, funny, charming and a tease. However, I ended up seeing a side to him that he had always tried to keep hidden to protect his social imagine. However, after I saw that side, he never acted arrogant or vain again, nor did he except invitations from people to sleep with. Anyway, we started spending nearly every waking moment together and we fell in love.'

'Hmm, he sounds like Reaver, but Reaver wouldn't know what love was even if it came up and bit him on the bum.' commented Hammer, missing Amy's pointed look.

River however, turned around and glared at her.

'Are you going to insult me the whole journey?' he demanded.

'Probably.'

River glared at her for a bit longer before facing the front once more.

'You didn't tell me what he looked like. You only said that he was handsome.' realised Hammer.

'Well, he is tall, taller than me. He has dark brown hair and dark green eyes -'

'Hello there Reaver!' yelled Norman, interrupting Amy as they arrived at the Reaver II. 'Are you ready to leave again?'

'Not quite yet, Norman. We just have to wait for some soldiers to come and then we can leave.' answered River as he walked on deck.

They didn't have to wait long for the soldiers for they arrived around an hour later, and the Reaver II set sail to the far coast of Aurora. While Hammer and Garth were down below deck, River walked over to Amy and embraced her from behind.

'You might want to come straight out and tell Hammer and Garth that we are married, cause if they see me stand near you, hugging you or even talking to you they are likely to attack me.' River told his beloved wife.

'Why would they do that?' asked Amy.

'They think that Reaver is going to take advantage of you.'

'I was actually going to see how long it would take them to figure out the truth,' admitted Amy. 'It will entertain me.'

'Well, can you tell them that they aren't allowed to take any shots at me or kill me in my sleep?'

'I think I can do that.' smiled Amy, before turning and capturing his lips in her own, before they quickly pulled apart when they heard Hammer's voice.

'Does anyone know how long it will take to get to Aurora?' Hammer asked, walking over to them, looking suspiciously at River.

'Roughly a day,' answered River.

And he was right too. It took almost a day to get to Aurora.

'Land ho!' One of the sailors yelled out, when the land mass of Aurora came in range.

'Finally. I can't wait to get off this bloody ship.' grumbled Hammer, looking a little green.

'We should be at our destination by nightfall,' River announced happily, walking down towards the other Heroes.

'Nightfall? But that's hours away!' complained Hammer.

'No use whining to me, my dear. I can't magically make the ship speed up, and nor would I want to.' said River.

'But, couldn't Sparrow or Garth make a stronger breeze to speed the ship up?' Hammer asked desperately.

'No.'

'But -' Whatever Hammer was going to say, they did not know, for at that moment, she ran to the side of the ship and vomited.

'If you got any of that on my ship, you will be the one cleaning it off.' River said seriously.

'Oh...shut it, Reaver!' Hammer snapped half-heartedly. She was too sick to put much hate in her tone.

Chuckling, River walked back to Norman, while Garth went below deck, leaving Amy with the sick Hammer.

'Hey, we're nearly there,' Amy told Hammer as the land mass came closer and the sun began to set.

'Thank goodness,' Hammer sighed with relief.

Amy smiled, but it shortly vanished as she saw something big and black moving towards them in the distance.

'Hey Garth, do you know what that is?' Amy asked when Garth joined them at the railing.

'Probably a whale or something,' he shrugged.

'Can whales get that big though?'

'I - no, now that you mention it.' Garth said, looking at the big black shape underneath the water. 'Nor can they move that fast.'

Amy was about to yell out to River, when the thing came and knocked into the ship, sending Hammer, Garth and Amy flying backwards. They weren't the only ones. The whole crew practically feel over.

'All right, what was that?' asked River, climbing back to his feet.

'Some sort of creature,' answered Amy.

'Impossible. The only creature big enough and brave enough to attack a ship would be a giant sea serpent, kraken or Leviathan, and they don't live in this part of the sea.' said River.

'You better tell that to this Leviathan,' said Norman, pointing to the creature in the water. It was a Leviathan. An angry one, at that.

'Shoot,' muttered River, drawing his Dragonstomper, before putting it back away. 'Garth, Amy. You're going to have to attack it. Bullets and hammers will be no use against it.'

Amy and Garth reacted immediately. They shot lightning, fire, blades and wind at it, forcing it away from the ship. It was no use. It was just too strong for them and it eventually, broke the ship apart knocking them all into the water. Thankfully, the land wasn't that far away and even more fortunate, only a handful of River's men were lost.

'I never what to travel by sea again!' declared a shaken Hammer.

'After that experience, I don't think I want to either,' admitted Garth.

'We shall camp here for the night.' announced Amy as she sat down on a nearby rock, with a drenched Storm next to her. 'We will set out in the morning. Garth, do you know where we are?'

'I can't be sure, but I think we're near the cave entrance.' answered Garth, looking around.

'Okay, everyone else, set up camp and try to get some rest. I'll take the first watch.' Amy said, before walking a short distance away where she had a good view of the camp.

That night, nothing happened, and when everyone was asleep, River went and sat next to Amy, before putting her in his lap, and holding her tightly as she sobbed quietly about how she wanted Logan back in her arms.

'We will find him, beloved.' River said gently, yet confidently.

'I hope so, River. I couldn't bare it if anything happened to him.' sobbed Amy.

'He's a strong little boy; he'll be fine as long as we don't give up hope.'

* * *

><p><strong>AN: ****Decided to give you too chapters as a sort of a Christmas present. Hope you all have (for those who celebrate it) a wounderful Christmas.**

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><strong>Written: <strong>4 October 2011


	3. Aurora's Hidden Enemy

**CHAPTER THREE: AURORA'S HIDDEN ENEMY**

The next morning, everyone woke up at dawn, except for Amy. She remained asleep in River's arms, something that Garth and Hammer didn't like. Had Reaver tried to take advantage of her, regardless of their warning? River noticed the looks they were giving him and he glared straight back at them. He dared them to do something, and if they did, he would get his revenge by doing what he did to Garth before he left Samarkand.

River soon became aware of Amy stirring in his arms.

'Morning, beloved,' he said quietly.

'Morning,' yawned Amy, before looking around. 'We might as well start going. Garth! Hammer! Get the men up and lead the way to the cave!' she yelled as she hopped out of River's lap.

'Sure,' answered Hammer and minutes later, they were following Garth towards the home of the Creatures of Darkness.

After fifteen minutes, they arrived at the mouth of the cave.

'This is it,' whispered Garth. 'It would be wise if we remained quiet from here on in. That way, we will hopefully have the element of surprise.'

Amy nodded along with everyone else. She was finding it hard to remain calm. All she wanted to do was run through the cave screaming for Logan, but she knew that would be unwise and would result in death.

'Amy? Are you coming?' River asked, stopping just inside the cave seeing as Amy hadn't followed.

'Huh? Oh, yes.' she answered, running over to him and taking his hand in hers. 'I can't believe we are so close now.' Amy muttered.

'I know. Soon this will just be a terrible night -' River broke off when something hit the top of the cave mouth, which resulted in a huge bang and the earth to shake. This ended up causing the cavern exit to cave in. They were trapped.

'What was that?' demanded Garth, walking over to River and Amy.

'No idea,' answered Amy. 'Let's try and move these rocks to let some more light in. I don't like being this venerable.'

'You heard the Queen, let's start moving these rocks and clear the exit!' said one of the soldiers. There were no arguments. All the men in the cavern would die for their queen at a moment's notice.

'Maybe there's another exit in the cave.' said Norman, two hours later after trying to clear the rock fall away. 'It will take us years to clear all of this away.'

'He's right,' panted Hammer, wiping sweat from her brow.

'I was afraid that you were going to say that,' sighed Amy. 'All right then, let's explore the rest of the cavern, but keep your eyes open and try to make no more noise than necessary. We're in the darkness' lair and it probably knows that we're here after all the racket that has been made already.' she added to her men and River's men. She knew that the others could handle themselves.

Quietly, the party moved on through the barely lit cavern passage and in no time, they had come to a large room with some sort of purple barrier that was protecting a hole in the ground with a flight of stairs leading downwards.

'That must be the way out,' muttered Amy as she approached the barrier.

'Don't touch it,' warned River.

'I hate to say this, but I agree with Reaver,' admitted Garth. 'For all we know it could be dangerous.'

'Did you honestly think I was going to touch it?' asked a slightly hurt Amy.

'Yes, and if we hadn't of said something you would have gone and touched it.' said River, before adding as Amy opened her mouth to argue, 'And don't even bother to deny it, young lady.'

'I wasn't going to, old man.'

'I'm not an old man!' huffed River.

'You're right of course,' sighed Amy, before adding with a cheeky smile, ' you're ancient!'

'All right, cut it out you two,' interrupted Hammer. 'We need to decide what we are going to do.'

'Find a way to get through the barrier.' Amy said simply.

'But -'

'Look, we can't just sit here and we can't go back. That leaves the only option for us is to go forward.' Amy reasoned. 'Garth, any ideas?'

'Yeah. If I can decipher this writing around the edge, then maybe we can find a way to keep moving forward through the barrier.' answered Garth.

'Sounds like a plan to me!' Hammer said happily. 'While your reading, the rest of us will regain our strength.'

With that said Garth borrowed one of the soldiers' journals and began to decipher the writing all around the portal. Hammer, the soldiers and River's men all began to set up camp and tried to get some sleep while Amy walked among them to see how they were all holding up. This wasn't as easy as it seemed for something was whispering to them. Something that was evil and they all knew that it was the unknown enemy of darkness. From hearing this, the men began to lose hope of ever seeing the light again. Meanwhile, River was standing with Storm, staring down at the bottom of the stairwell that was protected by the barrier.

'It's quite dark down there, isn't it?' Norman said, coming to a halt next to River and following his gaze.

'I'm hoping that it just seems darker down there due to how light it is up here due to the barrier,' muttered River.

The two men just stood there in silence. Minutes later, Garth yelled out saying that he knew how to open the barrier as he gave the soldier back this journal.

'Wow, that was quick.' said Hammer, opening her eyes. She had been quietly dozing for the past several minutes. 'So, what do we have to do?'

Garth grinned at her and said, 'Luminous spirits of the sand, inhale the restless gloaming.'

'Lovely, but what is that suppose to mean -' Hammer was cut off as the barrier lost its glow and disappeared. 'Garth, you're a bloody genius!' she exclaimed.

'Thanks, is everybody ready to go?'

There was a murmur of "yes" and everyone started to climb to their feet while the four Heroes, Storm and Norman started down the stairs along with a few soldiers and sailors. It was then that it happened. It was then that shadows of darkness attacked. They closed the barrier once more and attacked those trapped on the other side.

'Garth, open the barrier!' yelled Amy. 'We have to help them!'

'Luminous spirits of the sand, inhale the restless gloaming,' said Garth.

Nothing happened.

'Luminous spirits of the sand, inhale the restless gloaming.' Garth said again.

Again, nothing happened.

'I'm sorry, Hero. It just won't open.' Garth said sadly.

This meant that they all had to watch as their comrades were slaughtered like pigs and as they were literally ripped to shreds.

'Let's keep going,' River said quietly, taking Amy's hand and leading the way down the stairs.

The moment they reached the bottom of the stairwell, River groaned.

'It's darker in here than I thought.'

'It's a good thing with have Garth with us then.' Hammer said, trying to keep her voice calm.

'And what is that suppose to mean?' Garth demanded.

'For a scholar, you really do ask some stupid questions.' said River.

Garth glared at him.

'What I meant was, that you are a Will user so can't you make fireballs float around us and light the way?' Hammer said quickly, trying to stop a riot from happening. Garth had told her what Reaver had done to him before he had left for Albion once more. Hammer knew that Garth would love to electrocute Reaver and she would love to see it done, but now wasn't the time.

'Oh,' muttered Garth. He then closed his eyes and a number of fireballs began dancing around them.

'These flames will be like beacons,' Amy grumbled to River as they walked along.

'I know, but what choice do we have?' answered River. 'And who knows. These creatures are creatures of darkness. They probably fear the light and fire.'

The moment the words left River's mouth, they were attacked. And in the end, when they were about half way through the cavern only the four Heroes, Storm and Norman were still alive. Amy wasn't doing so well with this knowledge, and it took a long time for River and the others to convince her that it wasn't her fault.

Eventually they came to another barrier and the moment Garth opened it and they had gone through the doorway, it closed again.

'I really do not like this,' muttered Hammer.

'I agree with you,' said Amy, glancing down at the frightened Storm as he began to growl. 'More of those creatures are coming.'

Amy never knew how she would survive if she didn't have Storm's keen senses to protect her. They fought off another attack and continued on their way, it was when they were attacked again that River finally lost his temper.

'How many of these bloody things are there?' Hammer asked through clenched teeth as she sent four shadows flying with her hammer.

'Too many,' answered Garth as he shot fire at the final shadow.

They all stood still panting in silence for a minute. It was then that River noticed something.

'Where's Norman?' River asked quickly, looking around for the younger man.

'I'm here,' came a faint whisper.

With a cry, River hurried over to the dying man. Norman's shirt was soaked with blood.

'One of those bastards caught me by surprise,' Norman gasped in pain.

'I should have been paying more attention to you,' River said in a panicked voice as he began rummaging his bag for a healing potion.

'You had your hands full already. Besides, I'm not that little boy you found anymore.' Norman said with a small smile. 'I never told you that I had always looked up to you, even when I was a little boy. Before you found me, I use to watch you and would think how I'd like to be rich and powerful one day, just like you. That way, I would have been able to look after my family.' Norman then stopped and coughed up blood.

'Don't speak,' River ordered gently, still looking for a healing potion. Why were these things always at the bottom?

Norman ignored him.

'I still remember the day you found me,' Norman continued. 'I was outside playing with my older brothers when that thug came knocking with his men. He demanded that my father paid double rent and when my father said that he couldn't, the thug and his men killed him, my mother and brothers before bashing me for fun and leaving me to die on the streets. No one helped me and then you came. Unlike everyone else, you stopped and looked at me. At first I was over joyed that the famous Reaver actually paid attention to me, but it soon began sadness and fear as you went on your way without helping me. That night, I knew that my time was running out and I had lost all hope when a hooded figure appeared, picked up my broken body and carried me away. A week later I awoke in the warmest and softest bed I had ever been in and when I opened my eyes, your relieved face was the first thing I saw and I knew it was you that had saved me. From that day on, you had been like a father to me,' he finished with a raspy gasp.

'And you have always been like a son to me,' admitted River. He had given up on the healing potion for he knew that Norman was beyond help now. With this knowledge, River tried to hold back his tears.

Norman coughed again and looked at Amy, who was in tears.

'Look after him for me, Lionheart.'

Amy only nodded as tears poured down her eyes. She too had been close to him.

Norman smiled at her and looked back at the man who had raised him and had always protected him. River and Norman stared at each other intensely for a few moments, memorising each other's faces, before Norman unhooked a charm from around his neck and put it in River's hand. It was an eagle.

'Remember me?' Norman pleaded in a whisper.

'Always, my son.' River answered, tears now flowing freely from his eyes.

Norman smiled before his eyes glazed over as life left his body.

River bowed his head and sobbed quietly. Amy bent down and held her devastated husband. She knew what Norman had meant to River. He was his son in every way except blood. Meanwhile, Hammer and Garth just hung awkwardly in the background. The last time they had seen River act this way was back in Wraithmarsh during their journey to the cullis gate.

Minutes later, River attached Norman's charm next to Annabelle's owl charm and stood up with anger written all over his face.

'Let's find Logan and get out of here before I start shooting everything in sight!' snarled River, leading the way down the path. The other three Heroes hurried after him encase he did something stupid.

It was unknown how long they walked in the darkness for, with Garth's little fireballs being the only source of light, but they soon began aware that they weren't alone, besides the shadows. A more intelligent being lived there too.

'Did you hear that?' River asked, coming to a halt.

'Yes,' breathed Amy as she looked around.

'The light you bring will die. The light inside you will die. All that you are will die.' said a cold voice.

'Charming, greeting,' mutter Hammer. 'Who are you?'

The voice chuckled.

'Come to me Heroes of Albion. Come and rescue your frightened prince. Come and meet your doom!'

As if to prove its point, the sound of a child's scream echoed around the dark cavern. A scream that sounded like...

'Logan!' gasped Amy, before running down the path with the others right on her heels.

They within minutes they arrived in a large room that was filled with black liquid oozing upwards and bird like statues.

'Logan?' yelled Amy, as she looked around.

'Mummy?' whispered a small, scared voice from a dark corner.

Logan moved cautiously out of the darkness.

'Logan!' Amy yelled with relief and began to rush towards her small son, but River stopper her. 'What are you doing?' she demanded.

'Logan, what do the people of Albion know your mother and me by when we're dressed like this?' River asked suspiciously.

'Lionheart and Reaver,' Logan replied. 'Mummy, I want to go home - argh!'

'Reaver!' yelled Hammer furiously, when River shot the small boy through the heart. 'How could you do that? What's the matter with you? How could you kill Sparrow's son -'

'That wasn't Logan,' said a pale-face Amy. 'If it was, he would have come running to me and he shouldn't know about us being Lionheart and Reaver.'

Then, before their very eyes, Logan transformed into a shadow before disappearing.

'H-how did you know that wasn't Logan?' asked Garth. He was looking at the spot the small boy had been.

River was about to answer when the cold voice spoke again.

'You may have foiled that plan, but you shall never escape from here alive.'

Without warning, the statues around the room came alive and began to advance on the four Heroes.

'This is new,' commented a warily Hammer.

'Nothing we can't handle,' Garth said confidently.

And he was right, of course. Together they were able to defeat the advancing bird like statues. It was as though they had been killing boars or something, but they didn't know the worse was to come. They enemy finally showed his face, and words could not describe how the creature looked, with its sickly white skin, several eyes and haunted face.

'You shall not leave the darkness,' it said as it came towards them with two sentinels walking either side of it. 'So why not surrender. Bow down to death.'

'Where's Logan?' demand Amy.

'I have no idea,' it replied before attacking.

It was indeed one of the toughest enemies the Heroes had ever faced, and during the battle, Amy was injured.

'Argh!' Amy screamed as the creature's claws ripped the side of her waist.

That one little action resulted in Amy collapsing to the ground. Thankfully, River was able to catch her.

'Amy? Amy?' River called, but Amy didn't respond.

Her eyes were closed and her breathing was shallow. Her wound where the creature had attacked her was filled with black gunk, and as River tried to wipe it away, it just came back. It was as though the gunk was her blood.

'Amy's hurt!' River yelled over at Hammer and Garth, who were fighting off the creature. They had already destroyed the sentinels. 'We have to get out of here and find help immediately!'

'No one escapes the Darkness,' hissed the creature. 'You shall not survive. This place will be your tomb.'

'I don't think so,' growled Garth. 'Hammer, keep that thing away from me!'

'Sure thing!'

While Hammer fought the creature, Garth focuses all his Will on burning the creature. Minutes later, he yelled out to Hammer to move as he shot a gigantic fireball at the creature, before hurrying out of the cave with the others. The creatures horrible screams of pain followed them until he was finally silenced. Moments later, the Heroes were standing outside the cave in the Auroran desert.

'Well, we've solved one problem, with one taking its place.' River said as he shifted Amy gently in his arms. 'Which way now?'

'Let's try walking to the top of this ruined temple we're on and have a look,' suggested Garth, before leading the way.

'Euck, and I thought it was hot in Samarkand,' grumbled River as sweat began to drip down the side of his face as he reached the top. Hammer wasn't doing any better. Even Garth seemed to be struggling with the heat.

'Well...I see nothing but desert.' Garth said in defeat. 'I suggest we wait till night and let the stars guide us.'

'We can't wait that long, Garth!' exclaimed Hammer. 'Sparrow is becoming weaker by the second!'

'I realise that, Hammer. But it will do her no good if we get lost in a blazing, hot desert -'

'I see a settlement building or something in the distance!' River said suddenly.

'I don't see anything,' muttered Hammer as she looked out across the shimmering hot sand pit.

'That might be because my eyesight is sharper than yours,' shrugged River as he headed in the direction of what he saw.

'I forgot, Hero of Skill,' muttered Hammer as she followed him. Of course his eye sight would be better seeing as he normally fought from a distance.

The Heroes walked for what felt like days through the scorching hot desert, though it was actually a few hours. The entire time, River carried Amy. She was the only thing stopping him from lying down right then and there, and dying. He believed Logan to be dead, which hurt even more. He could not bear it if he lost Amy in the same day, as his two sons. After all, she was the only thing that gave him strength.

By nightfall, the group arrived at the city of Aurora. The moment its citizens saw the tired group, they immediately hurried over to help them and the moment Amy was taken from River's arms, his world went black and he lost all consciousness.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Okay, in this (and probably in any other Fable fanfictions I write) the Heroes won't age normally like other people due to them having Hero blood. Their aging process is much slower when they become an adult. That is why they are able to look young.**

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	4. It's a Beginning, Not an End

**CHAPTER FOUR: IT'S A BEGINNING, NOT AN END**

River awoke a day later to find an Auroran woman sitting in a chair beside his bed.

'Thank goodness you are all right!' she said happily, when she saw him awake.

'My wife, the woman I was carrying, is she all right?' demanded River as he got out of bed. 'Where is she?'

'She is in the room next door,' answered the startled Auroran woman. Clearly see hadn't expected him to be able to get out of bed. 'But you should not be out -' She never got to finish her sentence for River had left the room, hurrying to the room next door where he found an abnormally pale Amy.

'Will she be all right?' River asked as he walked into the room, scaring everyone within, including Garth and Hammer.

Storm immediately jumped off Amy's bed and walked sadly over to River and head butted his leg. River bent down and patted him.

'We don't know,' Hammer answered sadly. 'She might wake up and if she does, the poison that was in the Crawlers' - the creature we fought - claws will slowly kill her. For all we know she could get her strength back, but die two months later.'

River stared at her before turning his gaze onto his beloved wife. He felt nothing. He was in shock. The shock that he would never see his wife's loving eyes, hear her beautiful laugh or see her caring smile ever again. He just couldn't - wouldn't believe it. He soon became aware of Hammer talking again.

'I've been meaning to ask you, by some miracle, you haven't happened to see an Albion Prince lately?' Hammer asked the Queen of Aurora.

'Young Prince Logan?' asked Queen Zenobia.

'Yes, have you seen him?' Hammer asked excitedly. River quickly looked up at Zenobia. His son was alive?

'Yes, he is currently playing with my five year old daughter, Kalin. Come, I will take you to him.' Zenobia said, leading the way out of the room. Storm remained by his mistress' side.

Zenobia lead the group out onto the streets and pointed to a nearby fountain. Sitting on the fountain's edge was a little Auroran girl and none other than a laughing Logan. River couldn't believe it, and not because his son had made his first friend with someone his own age. No, he couldn't believe it because his son was alive and unharmed. By some miracle, Logan had survived.

'We found him wandering the desert, on the brink of death,' explained Zenobia. 'He was lucky to survive, though he has no memory of how he did.'

'We thank you for everything you have done for us,' muttered Garth, setting his eyes on his friend's son for the first time. He didn't look like Amy. In fact, he looked like...Reaver. No, he had to be mistaken. The child was a distance away after all.

They continued to watch the two children and, as though he could feel their eyes on him, Logan looked over at them. His eyes first landed on Zenobia. Logan liked Zenobia for she reminded him of his own mother, though she was nowhere near as beautiful or selfless. The other lady Logan recognised from pictures in tales of the Lucien's downfall. She was Hammer, the Hero of Strength. Logan couldn't believe that he was actually seeing her in person. Did she come to Aurora after the Spire? Logan eventually forced his eyes away from the big strong woman and looked at the dark skinned man with Will lines standing next to her...Garth, the Hero of Will. What chance was there of seeing two famous Heroes in one day? Yet again, Logan had to force his eyes away from the Hero and when he looked at the other man he gasped and ran towards him, with a startled Kalin following him.

Logan couldn't believe it! He was here! His father was here in Aurora! He hadn't expected to see him so soon. The Aurorans had only sent word to Albion the other day.

'Daddy!' yelled Logan, when he was only a few metres away. 'Daddy! 'Daddy! You're here!' he exclaimed, jumping into his father's open arms.

'Yes, I'm here,' laughed River as he spun his giggling, happy son around. 'Thank goodness you are all right!' he added, kissing his son.

'I'm fine, Daddy. Zenobia has taken good care of me.' said Logan, smiling over at his friend's mother.

'Daddy?' repeated a shocked Hammer. 'You're his father!'

'If I wasn't, why would he call me "daddy"?' grinned River.

'But... I thought that River was his father! And why would Sparrow sleep with you, Reaver?' she demanded.

'Why did you call Daddy "Reaver"?' asked a confused Logan.

'Because - that's his name,' stammered Hammer. She was startled by the child's question.

'No it's not. Daddy's name is River.'

'No,' Hammer gasped as she realized the truth.

'Yes,' River said calmly, showing her his left hand. On his ring finger was a golden ring with the words "My Thief" engraved on it.

'I-I can't believe it!' gasped Hammer. 'Have you been wearing that ever since our "reunion" in the Spire?'

'Yes.'

'I never noticed it before! How could I not notice something like that?'

'Maybe because you see me as the same pirate you met twenty-seven years ago.' River said wisely.

Logan watched the entire exchange with a frown on his face. Why did Hammer believe his father's name was "Reaver" and why did his father call himself a pirate?

Logan was about to ask his father about this when a new thought popped into his head.

'Daddy, where's Mummy?'

River paled. How was he supposed to explain to his son about Amy's current situation? He didn't want to worry and scare his son. In the end, he decided to tell Logan the truth, or at least part of the truth.

'Logan, Mummy is -'

'- waiting for a hug,' interrupted Amy as she walked confidently towards them.

River noticed that she still looked pale and weak. He couldn't believe that she was up and walking around. Then again, she had cheated death a number of times so he shouldn't be too surprised.

'Mummy?' Logan said hesitantly as River put him down.

While the woman sounded like his mother, she looked nothing like her. Logan's mother has waist length hair, not short hair. Her skin was also plastered with make-up, not clear with Will lines and an Albionite face tattoo. His mother also wore long dresses that covered her skin, no matter the temperature. This woman was wearing short pants and a corset - Amy left her coat behind seeing as it was too hot to wear it. As she got closer, he looked into her eyes. Eyes that were exactly like his mothers and it was then that he realised that the strange woman was in fact his mother. Knowing this, he ran straight into her open arms and hugged her tightly as she carried him back to the others.

'Mummy, why do you look so different?' Logan mumbled into her neck.

'This is the way I use to look before I became queen,' answered Amy. 'I use to wear this outfit, plus a highwayman's hat and coat, when I was out questing.'

'Questing? Were you an adventurer like Lionheart?'

'Sweet heart, I am Lionheart.' Amy said gently.

Logan gasped at his mother before turning to look at his father. If Lionheart, Strength and Will were here, and Strength called River "Reaver", who was once a pirate...that meant...

'You're the Hero of Skill, aren't you Daddy?'

'Yes.'

'Why didn't you tell me?'

'While you didn't know we believed you to be safe,' explained Amy. 'If nobody knew that you were Lionheart's son, then nobody could seek revenge on you. We were wrong. Do you understand why we did it?'

Logan nodded.

'However, you still can't tell anyone who I am.' River said firmly. 'I still have to keep up Reaver's social image. It's a good way to find out information in Albion,' he added, catching sight of the looks Hammer and Garth were giving him.

'I guess it means I can't whack him with my hammer seeing as he's your husband,' sighed Hammer somewhat wistfully.

'No, you can't.' Amy said firmly.

'Can I at least send a blade or something through his leg as pay back?' asked a hopeful Garth.

'No. You can't harm him in any way - what do you mean "pay him back"?' Amy asked, eyes narrowing slightly.

'He shot me in the leg and then fled from Samarkand.'

'RIVER!' exclaimed Amy.

'What? Oh come on! He's exaggerating! I only nipped him and I didn't flee!' said a defensive River.

'You shot him!'

'Nipped him.'

Amy glared at him before walking over to Kalin for Logan to introduce them.

One week later, Logan, Amy and a hooded River walked through the streets of Bowerstone, heading back to the castle. Many people came up to the welcoming Logan back and offering them their services.

After that day, Logan would join his father on his trips to Bloodstone, while Amy continued to go out adventuring and helping people once more, despite River's wishes for her to take it easy seeing as she still had the Crawlers' poison in her system.

Aurora became close allies with Albion, and Kalin and Logan remained in close contact. Everything was back to normal in Albion and everyone believed that the peace was to remain. How wrong they were. After all, it wasn't an end, but rather a beginning.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Next chapter begins Part Two**

**Facebook page:** link on profile  
><strong>Written: <strong>17 November 2011


	5. A Hero is Born

**WARNING: HOLDS FABLE III CONTENT**

**PART 2**

**CHAPTER FIVE: A HERO IS BORN**

Twenty-three years had passed since the Prince Logan's safe return from Aurora and in that time, Albion flourished once again with its people enjoying peace, prosperity, and a rapid pace of technological development, but what excited Albion most was when Amy gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named Cassandra, but that happiness was not to last. Days before Princess Cassandra's fifth birthday, King River made an announcement telling them that a tragic illness had taken the life of his beloved wife. It came as no surprise when Walter, the royal adviser and old soldier, announced River's death two years later. The people of Albion were surprised that he lasted that long. They all knew how much the queen meant to the king. It was then that seventeen year old, Prince Logan became their king with a heavy heart with his seven year old sister by his side.

In the beginning, Albion was happy with their young king for he was caring, patient, intelligent and decisive, and he ruled the kingdom with a strong, but even hand...it was not to last. After one of Logan's many trips to Aurora, he's policies and troops became stricter, harsher and unforgiving. He took money from both the extremely rich and poor alike which started to lead to poverty. Their king, who once listened to those around him, began to ignore the cries of his people, advisers and even his sister. In the end, a revolution had begun...

* * *

><p>'What a dreadfully sorry sight,' sighed Jasper, a faithful butler to Princess Cassandra as he opened her curtains before waking her for the day. 'Such a beautiful day to waste in bed, don't you agree?'<p>

Cassie didn't even bother opening her eyes. Instead she burrowed her heading to her pillow groaning.

'Go away, Jasper,' groaned Cassie. She was having a wonderful dream about her lover.

'Now that is hardly the response of a princess,' stated Jasper sternly as he walked over to her bed. 'I'm afraid it is time to rise. With your permission, I shall wake your sleeping companion.'

Cassie groaned again. He would have done it regardless.

'Ah, yes.' said disapproving Jasper as he moved Cassie's cover's to reveal her dog, Lightning. Lightning was one of her mother's dog Storm's children. As for his name...she was four years old when she named him. 'One's heart soars before such regal bearing. I trust you both slept well. You have a busy day ahead.'

Cassie groaned again and lent over to rub Lightning's tummy.

'Come on, boy. If I have to get up, so do you.' she said, before hopping out of bed herself. Lightning followed quickly and went over to Jasper, before looking up at him with a sad look on his face.

'It's not going to work,' Jasper said firmly, knowing that Lightning was after a pat. 'Don't look at me like that!' Lightning made a whimpering sound. 'Oh, very well. Good dog,' sighed Jasper in defeat, before muttering, 'What a pair...the kingdom is doomed.'

'It's a good thing then that Logan is king. I will have nothing to do with the running of Albion!' Cassie said happily.

'Hmm,' was all Jasper said, turning his attention to me and getting down to business. 'Now, madam -' Cassie had given up on trying getting him to call her "Cassie" or at least "Cassandra", '- if you follow me, perhaps we can find more appropriate clothing for today's activities.'

'Right, what's on the agenda today?' Cassie asked.

'Firstly, Master Elliot is most eager to speak to you this morning and is waiting for you in the garden.'

'Did he say what he wanted to speak to me about?' Cassie asked, frowning slightly. Something must be wrong.

'No, but I have no doubt, regardless of what he wants to talk to you about, that you will wish to look your best for your young _friend_.' He stressed the word "friend" and Cassie felt a slight blush come to her cheeks. 'I have taken the liberty of arranging two suitable outfits, if you would care to choose.'

Cassie smiled at how organised Jasper was - honestly, she would be lost without him - and went to see which outfits he had chosen. One was her white and blue elegant outfit while the other was a more practical outfit. Assuming that she wouldn't have any sword practice with Walter today, she decided to wear her elegant outfit. She quickly took it off the mannequin - leaving the hat behind (she thought that she looked ridiculous in it) - and went behind her screen to get changed. Once changed, she put a royal blue chocker around her neck and matching earrings in her ears. She went to her dressing table and focused on her long, brown hair. She decided to leave it down to frame her face, before focusing on her makeup. With that all done, she walked over to Jasper.

'Ah, splendid choice!' Jasper said approvingly, looking up at Cassie once she approached. 'I'm sure Master Elliot will approve. Perhaps you should make your way to meet him now. And I would recommend avoiding your brother today.' he added warningly.

'Why?' Cassie asked suspiciously. What was wrong with her brother now?

'King Logan is rumoured to be in an ill temper.' Jasper said simply. 'Have a good day, madam.'

'Will do. Bye, Jasper.' Cassie replied as she left her chamber. She wondered what had Logan in a foul mood this time.

She barely noticed everyone bowing and curtseying to her as she made her way to the gardens to find Elliot. She had a pretty good idea where he'd be. She would check the garden outlook where they normally stood looking at the city below. Her hunch was correct for there he was standing patiently for her. Lightning, upon seeing Elliot, let out an excited bark and ran over to him barking. Elliot turned around, before bending down to pat the excited dog.

'Oh, fierce warrior, are you here to join my army?' Elliot asked cheerfully. Lightning barked in reply. 'Good. We shall face all our enemies together, won't we? Yes, we will. Yes, we will.'

'Then the kingdom is safe,' said an amused Cassie.

'Ah, our fair princess,' began Elliot, standing up and walking over to her. 'Your two brave knights will protect you with their lives.'

'Thanks, but I can look after myself, you know.' laughed Cassie.

'Really?' said a disbelieving Elliot. 'I'm afraid I'll need some proof. Perhaps you can give me a demonstration of your abilities?' he added slyly.

Cassie smirked and closed the gap between the two of them till their bodies we're pressing together. She then wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him passionately on the lips.

'How's that?' giggled Cassie, when their lips broke apart. She kept her arms wrapped around his neck and his arms remained around her waist.

'That's...I'd have to say that's quite satisfactory,' said a breathless Elliot. 'Thought you'd never get up. Did Jasper tell you I wanted to speak to you?' he asked, taking a small step away from her and becoming serious suddenly.

'Yes. Did something happen?' Cassie said worriedly.

'I'm not sure,' admitted Elliot. 'But everyone in the castle seems to be upset with your brother.'

'What else is new?' said Cassie.

'More than usual.' said Elliot, before walking over to the railing and looking down at the city below. 'And it's even worse down in the city. You hear such terrible stories. Listen, they say that a factory worker was executed this morning. I'm sure it's only a rumour, but you can imagine the way people are talking. The staff in the castle are anxious. I told them you'd speak to them. Will you do that? I'm afraid what will happen if someone doesn't calm things down.'

'If you think it will help...'

'I do. They may fear the king, but they still care for their princess.' smiled Elliot. 'So, my good princess, may I take your hand and escort you to the castle? Everyone's waiting for you.'

'Of course you may,' smiled Cassie, taking his offered hand.

'Good. Now let's go,' said Elliot, leading the way up to the palace.

After awhile, Elliot spoke again.

'I can't believe Logan could have had a work executed. But sometimes I think...,' he hesitated.

'Elliot, we have known each other since we were kids. You can speak your mind,' Cassie said gently.

'Well, I sometimes think that there is something wrong with him.'

'What makes you think that?'

Elliot shrugged. 'He's changed so much. And he looks so tired all the time.'

Cassie had to admit that she couldn't argue with that. Indeed Logan had changed as they grew up and he did look extremely tired, but that didn't mean that there was something wrong with him, did it?

'He's probably just stressed,' said Cassie.

'Maybe. Anyway, I told Sir Walter about the speech. He'll be there to support you. I don't know what this place would be like without him.' continued Elliot, changing the subject. He could sense that Cassie was uncomfortable talking about her brother's actions. 'I'm sure he'll want to carry on with your instruction today. He seems obsessed with combat training lately.'

'Obsessed isn't the word I would use,' grumbled Cassie. 'And here I was thinking that he would give me the day off.'

'I'm sure he has a good reason for it,' agreed Elliot. 'Good luck,' he added as a whisper as we entered the kitchens, where the staff had assembled.

'Thanks,' muttered Cassie as the voices of the staff met her ears.

'Well, I heard all he did was stand up for one of the kids working in the factory.'

'Who knows where it ends. Next thing you know it's one of us that's -'

'Quit your gossiping now,' stated the head cook, catching sight of Elliot and Cassie. 'And straighten those clothes!' The staff quickly obeyed and gave their princess their complete and utter attention. 'Welcome, your highness. Such an honour to have you here today.' said the cook, bowing deeply to Cassie. 'The staff have convened to hear your words. Whenever you are ready, Princess.'

Cassie didn't start straight away. Instead, she looked around at the worried faces of the staff that had assembled. Finally she began in a loud, firm, but caring and understanding voice; 'You have all been through some difficult times, and the king has been too...preoccupied to treat you as he should. But I ask you to ignore any wild rumours you hear. I promise to speak with my brother about improving conditions for both you and your families outside the castle. Thank you.'

With that said, the staff was dismissed and Elliot walked over to Cassie.

'Great job,' he said.

'You call that a royal speech?' asked a strong loud voice from a nearby doorway. Elliot and Cassie both jumped. Neither of them had seen or heard Walter enter the room. 'You didn't shout, you didn't threaten, and you were far too reasonable...it was bloody marvellous!' chuckled Walter approvingly. 'Right then, ready for today's training?' he added, looking Cassie up and down. He didn't think she was wearing the appropriate attire.

'As ready as I'll ever be,' muttered Cassie, following Walter out of the room. Behind her she heard Elliot yell out, 'Take good care of her, Walter!'

Cassie smiled. Elliot was always looking out for her and spoiling her.

'I suppose you've heard the rumours then?' Walter asked as they walked through the corridors of Bowerstone Castle, once known as Castle Fairfax.

'About the factory worker? Yes.'

'Well, I'm afraid they're quite true,' sighed Walter sadly. Cassie nearly stopped dead upon hearing that statement. Sure Logan had done some harsh and unforgivable things in his time, but something like this...she couldn't believe it! 'Who knows what your brother will do next,' continued Walter. 'In the meantime, the mood in the castle is getting more uneasy by the day. A lot of people to see your brother today. Poor sods,' added Walter as the two of them entered the main entry. There was a group of tired looking people standing in line waiting to have an audience with the king.

Logan must be in the Throne Room, thought Cassie, but her thoughts were interrupted as a villager called out to Walter.

'Sir Walter!' he exclaimed. 'What a stroke of luck! Would you be so kind as to sign my petition? We must fight to eradicate poverty in Albion. Too many suffer on our streets, and the king does nothing. He must be made to care.'

Cassie frowned at that. What the villager said couldn't be true. Logan does care for his people, and she was sure he was doing everything in his power to help stop it. She was surprised by Walter's answer.

'Oh, very well, but I'm just an old soldier. I doubt my name would mean anything. But perhaps the princess here would care to help you out.'

It took all of Cassie's strength not to glare at Walter. How could he put her on the spot like that? And against her brother too. Plus she didn't even know much about life outside the castle since she had spent her entire life inside - except for the few short years she had with her mother. Her father and brother never let her outside after her mother's death.

'Oh, that would be wonderful, your highness!' said the villager excitedly. 'It would be a great honour.'

Taking one look at his face, Cassie knew that she would never be able to say no. Inwardly sighing, she agreed.

'Thank you, my princess. Your support will make all the difference. I'm certain of it.' he said, after Cassie had signed.

Cassie nodded to him and left with Walter through the opposite doorway.

'That was a courageous move,' said Walter the moment we were out of hearing range. 'I doubt it will make much of a difference, but perhaps your brother will finally realise you have a mind of your own.'

Cassie frowned again. Of course he knew that she had a mind of her own!

'Let's see you put it to good use in the combat room,' Walter added as they entered the combat room. 'You have made good progress these past few weeks, but today isn't about practice. I want you to fight me, as if your life depended on it.'

Cassie nearly dropped the sword she was holding as he said that. Firstly, she didn't think that she was wearing the suitable attire for fighting - though it didn't really matter since her mother could fight in anything - and secondly, she didn't want to accidently hurt Walter, but she did as he asked. Again and again, Cassie stuck blow after blow, but Walter was able to block every single one, without much effort, which didn't help her confidence. Half way during the fight, Walter began to speak.

'Do you remember the stories I'd tell you when you were a child?' he asked, blocking another blow. 'About your mother, the great Hero Queen?'

'Yes, what about them?' Cassie panted, striking again.

'You never got tired of hearing those stories.'

'That's because they were the only things left that I had of my mother, seeing as Logan would never talk about her. It pained him too much. Still does, in fact.' Cassie said, failing to see where he was going with the conversation.

'After every story, do you remember what you would say?' he asked.

'Teach me how to be a Hero,' replied Cassie.

'Every single time,' chuckled Walter. 'I wish there was something an old soldier like me could teach you...but I have done my best. Now I need you to do your best. Strike me! It's time you show me what you've got!'

Cassie obeyed. Her grip tightened on her sword handle and she flung it around striking Walter's sword. The force of her attack knocked Walter backwards and her sword and upper body went downwards. She stood there staring at the floor panting and only looked up when she heard Walter laughing.

'Look at that! You only went and broke it!' laughed Walter.

Startled, Cassie looked up and sure enough, she had broken Walter's sword in half. She had done that, but how on earth did she manage to do that? She didn't inherit her mother's strength. In fact, she hadn't inherited anything from her mother except her looks. Logan was the same. While the staff assumed that he looked like their father, they weren't sure. They were sure about one thing, however, and that was that Logan had inherited his father's unnatural ability as a marksman, making Logan the best marksman in Albion, excluding his business adviser Reaver, the Hero of Skill, who Cassie was yet to meet.

'Look at that! Am I a great teacher or what?' Walter continued to laugh, while Cassie remained stunned. After a while, Walter began serious once more. 'Listen, there's something -'

'Walter!' interrupted a worried Elliot as he ran into the room. 'You have to go quickly! Both of you!'

'What's happened?' Walter asked quickly.

'Outside the castle! It looks like a demonstration!'

'This is not good,' muttered Walter, following Elliot from the room.

'There right inside the castle grounds,' explained Elliot. 'I've never seen so many people out there.'

'Balls,' cursed Walter. 'I should have known this would happen. I don't think they realise what Logan is capable of. This isn't going to end well.' he said, looking out a nearby window at the crowd below. 'It has been a long time since Logan has listened to me, but I should find him. Stay here.' he added firmly. 'There is still something we need to talk about.'

The moment that Walter was out of sight, Elliot turned to Cassie.

'I have a horrible feeling about this. We can't just stand here. We need to do something.' He glanced over to the stairwell that Walter had just gone up. 'Look, the guards have moved away from the stairs. We should follow Walter; find out what Logan's going to do. Let's go while we can.'

Cassie hesitated. Hadn't Walter told them to remain where they were? But she soon figured that she ought to know what was happening. After all, she was the princess and she was eighteen years of age.

'Okay, let's go,' said Cassie, following Elliot up the stairs. 'They'll most likely be in the War Room.'

'Then let's get there before anyone sees us,' replied Elliot nervously, hurrying down the corridor that lead to the War Room. Once they arrived at the War Room, they quietly went to the closed door and listened through the keyhole.

'Think about what you are doing, Logan!' Walter warned.

'I'm protecting the interests of the people. Do not question me again.' Logan, now twenty-eight, said firmly before turning to one of his soldiers. 'You will shoot to kill. Start with the ringleaders, and if necessary, continue with the crowd.'

'This is wrong, you can't do this!' said an outraged Walter, advancing on Logan.

Logan made a small hand gesture and one of his soldering smashed his weapon in Walter's left knee. Walter collapsed to the ground, making Elliot and Cassie gasp. Cassie had never seen her older brother like this before. Was this the man that everyone else in Albion saw?

'Never tell what I can't do,' Logan said coldly, looking down at the man kneeling before him.

Elliot and Cassie moved quietly away from the door. The moment they were sure that they wouldn't be overheard, Elliot turned to Cassie.

'We can't let him kill all those people.' he said, stating the obvious. 'You're his sister! Maybe he'll listen to you!'

Cassie nodded her agreement, went back to the War Room door, and flung it open, startling those inside.

'What are you doing here, Cassie?' asked Logan, realising who it was. He sounded annoyed. 'The War Room is no place for a child. Leave now.'

It was Cassie's turn to be annoyed. For once she wished that he would stop treating her like the five year old girl he taught how to dance.

'I'm here to stop you.' Cassie said confidently. 'You can't kill those people!'

'No, wait...' Walter said desperately, but Logan interrupted him.

'Enough!' he stated firmly, before advancing on Cassie. She held her ground. She was not scared of her brother. 'How dare you turn against me? Perhaps you believe you should be the one making these decisions.'

'What? No! That's not what I meant, Log -' Cassie argued back. Logan held up his hand to stop her.

'Well, seeing as you really wish to defend those traitors, I should let you make the decision this time.' Logan said coldly, making a motion to the guards to take hold of Elliot.

'Let him go!' Cassie said angrily, making a move towards the guard that held him. Logan grabbed her by the arm to stop her.

'Take my sister's _friend_ to the throne room.' ordered Logan, sneering at the word friend. He knew that Elliot and Cassie were more than friends and Logan, being a typical older brother, didn't approve on him one bit.

When Logan and Cassie arrived at the Throne Room, Logan's soldiers were in there guarding both Elliot and three villagers. Cassie looked up at her expressionless brother worriedly. What was he planning?

'Cassandra,' began Logan, once they were standing in the middle of the room, 'today you have disappointed me beyond measure. I have been betrayed by my own blood...and a filthy spy,' he added, glaring over at Elliot. He always thought that the boy was a bad influence on his little sister.

'We did nothing wrong!' argued an angry Elliot.

Logan ignored him as he often did.

'Punishment must be apportioned where it belongs,' continued Logan.

'Punish me then!' Cassie half begged of her brother, looking up into his tired face. He looked ten years older than he actually was.

Logan looked down at her desperate face, before saying, 'You are no longer a child, and it is time I stopped treating you as one. You wished to save the traitors who had gathered outside the castle this morning, so you shall be given the chance to save them. Here stand the leaders of the violent mob,' Logan said, motioning to the three scared looking villagers. 'I will give you a choice.'

'What choice?' Cassie asked, hardly daring to breathe. She knew that she wasn't going to like what was about to happen.

'Who will be punished?' Logan said simply. 'These strangers, -' he motioned to the mob leaders, '- or this boy.' He motioned to Elliot, with much dislike on his face. 'The sentence will be death,' said Logan, looking over back down at Cassie.

'What!' exclaimed Cassie. How would she be able to choose between her lover and her people?

Logan took her chin in his hand and looked her straight in the eye. 'You are the princess. Decide.' His tone was almost gentle.

Walter couldn't remain silent anymore.

'Your majesty. Logan. Please.' begged Walter.

Logan ignored him and continued to look at his little sister, never letting go of her chin, nor did she force it away, but her angry eyes never left his cold ones.

'I am giving you power over life and death,' said Logan.

'No! I won't do this!' yelled Cassie, knocking his hand away and hurrying over to Elliot. Elliot wrapped his arms around her.

'If you can't or will not choose...then I will.' Logan said coldly. 'They will all be executed.'

Cassie couldn't do anything but stare at her brother in sheer horror. Elliot was right. He had changed, but not for the better. She couldn't believe that her brother become so dark so...evil, heartless, take your pick.

'So tell me, Cassandra. What are you willing to sacrifice to do the right thing?' Logan asked, watching her closely.

Cassie looked from the man she loved to the people she had never met before. How could she decide? As though reading her thoughts, Elliot made the choice for her.

'Choose me, Cass.' Elliot said gently. 'You can't let them all die. Choose me.' he added, gently lifting up her chin and looking her in the eyes.

Tears began to fall from Cassie's eyes as she nodded her head. Elliot smiled sadly down at her. Cassie had to be impressed by Elliot's courage in the face of death.

'Thank you, thank you!' cried one of the mod members.

Cassie ignored them. If it hadn't been for them, she would never have been put in this position. Her eyes remained locked to Elliot's. Tears freely flowing down her face.

'It's all right. You did what you had to do.' Elliot said gently, wiping away her tears with his thumb as he tried to memorise her face. 'Never forget what _he_ has done and always remember that I love you.' he whispered, before taking her lips in his own.

'Take the boy away!' said Logan harshly. Cassie and Elliot probably made him madder by kissing each other. He probably would have like Elliot more if he hadn't been dating his sister. 'Take him to the dungeons and wait for my orders.'

Logan quickly pulled Cassie away from Elliot as the soldiers dragged him away.

'I will _never_ forgive you for this!' Cassie screamed at Logan, before hitting him in the chest. He moved uncomfortable, before grabbing hold of her hands to stop her from hitting him again. If she was someone else, she would probably have been killed to for attacking the king.

'Good. Then you will never forget it.' Logan said quietly. 'Escort my sister to her chambers. Now.'

Two soldiers came over to Cassie and each took one of her arms.

'I can walk by myself!' she snapped, before leaving the Throne Room, with the two soldiers following her.

The moment Cassie arrived in her chambers; she opened the door before slamming it shut, startling Jasper, who was currently sorting a few things out.

'Cassandra? What's wrong?' exclaimed Jasper, hurrying over to the now sobbing Cassie who was lying on her bed. Lightning whined sadly, jumping on the bed trying to comfort his mistress.

'E-Elliot has been sentenced to d-death!' sobbed Cassie, not noticing the use of her first name. 'And it's all my fault!'

'What do you mean?' Jasper asked quietly, gently rubbing her back in comforting circles.

Cassie then explained exactly what happened after she left her chambers that morning. By the time see had finished, a storm had hit and rain was pouring down, and the clouds made it look as though it was night.

'How could Logan do something like that?' yelled a now angry Cassie as she stormed over to her sofa. 'If only I had kept my mouth shut instead of thinking that I was old enough and mature enough to do...' Cassie broke off with a scream and hit her sofa arm.

'You mustn't blame yourself, madam.' Jasper said gently, walking over to her. 'I don't think any of us realised just how far he'd fallen into madness.'

'I have to do something. I can't just stay here.' Cassie said firmly, trying to get a hold of herself.

'You're not,' said Walter firmly as he entered her chambers. 'This kingdom needs nothing less than a revolution. It needs a new leader. It needs a Hero.'

'A revolution has already begun, Walter.' said Cassie, not even bothering to turn around. 'That mob is proof of it. As for a new leader, you'd be more likely to find the Archon's Dream that was stolen from the museum than get Logan off the throne and as for a Hero...the only Hero I know about that is still alive is Reaver, and he is in league with my brother. The others are either dead, or across the seas.'

'Wrong, Cassie.' said Walter. 'Come with me. It is time to see if you are ready.'

'Ready for what?' groaned Cassie. She wasn't in the mood for riddles.

'To be your mother's daughter,' answered Walter. Cassie turned around and gave him a look. Couldn't he tell that she was not in the mood for riddles? Elliot would have known.

'Very good. I will pack some essentials.' said Jasper.

Cassie looked over at him quickly. He understood what Walter was on about. Had the two of them planned something long ago or something?

'There's no time. We take nothing.' Walter said firmly, leading the way out of Cassie's chambers.

'Not even...pyjamas?' said a shocked Jasper.

Cassie nearly laughed at her butler's reaction, but she didn't for she was hesitant to leave her chambers. Hesitant to do anything else to make her brother angry.

'Don't worry, madam. I shall follow you wherever fate may take us,' said Jasper gently, giving Cassie a little nudge out the door.

Taking a deep breath, Cassie hurried after Walter. While neither Jasper nor Walter was related to her by blood, they were still her family and she trusted them with her life.

'I should have done something in the throne room. I should have stopped him,' ranted Walter, leading the way down to the garden. Lightning gave a little growl over being out in the rain. He was more on a luxury, stay inside dog compared to his father, Storm.

'All you would have accomplished would have been your own death.' Jasper said firmly.

'Still,' muttered Walter. 'Maybe I should have taken you away sooner.' he added to Cassie.

'What do you mean, "Taken me away"? Taken me away where? Walter, you're not making any sense!' Cassie told her beloved mentor. Walter didn't answer.

'There is something rather sinister about this garden at night,' muttered Jasper.

'Jasper, it is afternoon,' said Cassie.

'You know what I mean,' he replied.

'Walter, can you please tell me where we are going?' Cassie begged.

'We are going to pay our respects to Albion's greatest and truest Hero,' answered Walter, leading them to the Catacombs where Cassie and Logan's parents were buried.

'I never thought I'd enter this place again,' muttered a sad Jasper.

'You should have known better,' said Walter.

Cassie looked between the two older men again. They were talking in riddles that only they seemed to know. Why should Jasper have known better?

Curious and confused as to what was happening, Cassie followed Walter into the Catacombs, followed by Lightning and Jasper.

'The night your mother died I promised her that I would bring you here one day, when you were old enough, and strong enough.' Walter explained as he led the way through the catacomb towards Cassie's parents' tombs.

'Why?' Cassie asked.

'Because this is your history and legacy,' answered Walter, before adding,' and she told me that you were Albion's last hope against the Darkness, whatever that means. Anyway, the world has been too long without a Hero - a Hero that helps people instead of taking advantage of them -,' Walter was talking about Reaver, '- but I'm hoping that it will have one soon.'

'What? Are you saying that you think that I could be a Hero? Like Mother?' asked a disbelieving Cassie.

Walter nodded and walked over to one side of a huge statue, while Jasper went to the other side. There they pushed a secret pressure plate - which looked like any other stone brick - which made the statue lower its hands to reveal some sort of seal.

'This is your mother's most treasured possession - besides you and your brother,' explained Walter. 'Your father put it here immediately after her death. The Guild Seal chooses those who have the power inside them. Those who have the potential to become legends. Take it.'

Cassie did as he said and picked up the small seal. It fitted into one of her dainty hands. She stood there for a moment holding it, before turning to Walter.

'Was something supposed to happen?' Cassie asked. The moment the words left her lips, the Guild Seal began to glow and pain began to course through her body. Walter and Jasper just stood there watching her. She wanted to yell out to them, to tell them to get the cursed device away from her, but she couldn't. But then, the pain stopped and she felt stronger and more powerful than before. Was she a Hero or something now? Or was it just her imagination?

She was about to turn to Walter and Jasper to ask what had just happened, when she realised they weren't there, and neither was Lightning. In fact, she was no longer in the catacombs. She was standing in some fog filled place in front of a huge gate with the Guild crest on it. In front of the gate was a woman that looked exactly like the statue in the catacombs. The lady was dressed in a red and white dress with a matching hood. Her eyes were white. Cassie watched her cautiously wondering whether she was friend or foe. They stood there in silence for several minutes, before Cassie decided to break the silence.

'Wh-who are you?' she asked nervously. She had no weapon to defend herself with if this lady turned out to be a foe.

'I am Theresa, the Seer of the Spire. I guided your mother to her greatest triumph and I am one of the reasons to why your parents met, but you have an even greater destiny ahead of you, than both of theirs combined.' said the white eyed woman. 'The Seal awoke at your touch, as it would no one else's - except perhaps Logan's. This means the fate of Albion rests on your shoulders.'

At her words, Cassie was strongly reminded of what Walter had told her. "Because this is your history and legacy, and she told me that you were Albion's last hope against the Darkness, whatever that means". Is this what her mother had meant, and if so, how did she know about it in the first place?

Cassie began aware of Theresa talking again.

'Before you lies the path you were born to take. And at its end is the kingdom you were born to rule.' said Theresa. 'Like all Heroes, you will face many trials, but you cannot pass through these gates alone. You will need to gather followers and gain the support of the people. For now, you have the support of two friends. Jasper, who will serve you always...and Sir Walter Beck, who will be your greatest ally. Together you have already taken the first step in your journey. Walk through the gate and claim your reward.' she said before disappearing.

Cassie was definitely spooked out now. Not even those people that claim to be magicians could do that. But somehow, she knew that she could trust the Seer Theresa, and she hoped that it wasn't just because she mentioned her parents. For all Cassie knew, she could have made that up.

Drawing upon her courage, Cassie did as Theresa asked and walked through the gates where she soon came across a chest. She opened it and found a red gauntlet. What kind of reward was this? Was it so she could protect her forearm? As she tried it on, Theresa appeared once more, scaring the living day lights out of Cassie.

'I use to do that to your father to,' Theresa said casually, referring to Cassie being scared. 'The gauntlets - created by your mother and her friends Barnum and Garth - will channel the magic within you. Use it by the tomb in the mausoleum, and the way out of the castle will open for you. You will return here when you have gathered enough followers to reach the next gate.' explained Theresa. 'Now go. Walter and Jasper will follow you wherever you lead. And one day, perhaps the rest of Albion will do so too.' she said before Cassie's surroundings began to disappear and she found herself standing back in the catacombs. Walter, Jasper and Lightning were standing around her.

'Well? Do you...Do you feel any different?' asked a curious Walter.

'I...I feel stronger,' admitted Cassie. 'Sorry if I made you worry by the way when I disappeared.' she added.

'Disappeared?' repeated a blank Jasper. 'Madam, you've been here the entire time.'

'Wh-what? That can't be right. I've been gone for at least fifteen minutes.' said a now confused Cassie.

'What are you talking about, Cassie?' asked Walter and Cassie quickly explained about Theresa and what she had said, before showing them the gauntlet on her arm.

'Theresa knew River?' repeated a shocked Walter.

'I'm more shocked about the part of her being a reason to why they met,' said Jasper. 'It's weird for Queen Amy's great-great-great, many more greats, aunt to set her up with a thief. Do you think she was trying to save King River from a path of hate and crime or something?'

'I don't know. But what I do know is that Cassie will have to try and cast a spell.' answered Walter.

'Why?' asked Cassie.

'That's suppose to be our only way of getting out of here,' Walter said simply.

Cassie and Jasper stared at him.

'You might have mentioned that earlier,' muttered Jasper, sounding annoyed.

'And spoil the surprise?' grinned Walter.

Jasper didn't look amused.

Sighing, Cassie relaxed her body and mind and tried to focus on the power she could feel running through her veins and before she knew it, a fireball came out of her gauntlet, scaring Jasper and startling Lightning, Walter and herself. They looked around. Nothing seemed to have happened.

'I thought you said casting a spell would show us the way,' said Jasper.

'That's what Amy told me. Maybe you have to stand in a certain spot.' said a thoughtful Walter, looking around.

Cassie too began looking around, when her eyes feel upon a circle of light red light, lightly emitting from the ground. When she walked over for a closer look, she saw that the circle was the Heroes Guild crest. Gathering her Will again, Cassie sent a fireball into the ground in the circle and the ground beneath her parents tombs began to move revealing a secret passageway.

'It bloody worked!' exclaimed Walter. 'You really are a Hero!'

'I never doubted it for a second,' huffed Jasper.

'Well, of course, neither did I. Still though...it bloody worked!' Walter said happily, walking down the stone stairs that lead to the way out of the castle.

Cassie didn't follow straight away, instead she said goodbye to her parents, whom she had barely any memories of - Logan took down all portraits and photos of them, along with statues and books - before hurrying after her friends.

'Somewhat narrow, isn't it? Dark too,' muttered Walter as they walked through the passageway.

'You never did care for confined spaces, did you, Sir Walter?' said Jasper.

'I never cared for being poked in the eye or having my head chopped off, what of it?' snapped Walter.

'Oh, dear. I seem to have struck a nerve.'

'How about if I strike a butler on the bunce!'

'Enough you two.' Cassie said tiredly. She wasn't in the mood for listening to them scrabble like an old married couple. She was tired. First her boyfriend is executed, a fight with her brother, then she runs away only to find out that she is a Hero and she has to start a revolution all to become the next ruler of Albion...it was definitely not a good day for her.

They walked in silence for a few minutes until they arrived at a large opening.

'Ah, now this is more like it.' exclaimed Walter. 'Grand, spacious, a plentiful supply of oxygen...just the way a castle's escape route should be.'

'I hesitate to ask, but what is our plan?' Jasper said hesitantly. 'Other than leaving the castle far behind us, which I wholly approve of, obviously.'

'It's simple. We have to stop Logan.' Walter said as though it was the most obvious thing in the world.

'How am I supposed to do that? Even if I am a Hero, I'm just one person.' said Cassie. She decided not to add "easier said than done" to her statement.

'Exactly. That is why we need to find allies.' said Walter. 'And lots of them. Once you prove what you are, people will follow you, and many of them will be willing to fight. But they need a leader. Someone to believe in. Albion needs nothing less than a revolution...'

'Bats! Take cover!' yelled Jasper as colony of bats came flying at the group.

Cassie tried not to laugh at Jasper's reaction to the bats as she sent fire ball after fireball at the small creatures. She was really starting to get the hang of it. Walter must have thought so to, for once Cassie had killed them all, Walter exclaimed happily, 'Excellent! Did you see that, Jasper? Did you see it?'

'Indeed. Your mother would have been proud, madam.' said Jasper, straightening his clothes.

That simple comment meant the world to Cassie. She wished that she had more memories of her mother, and hearing that she would be proud of her made her happier than you can imagine.

'Well, I know I am!' smiled Walter, before continuing down the path. 'Come on.' he said, before adding to Jasper, 'And I'm proud of you too, old friend.'

'Why?' Jasper asked suspiciously.

'I've never seen a man cower with such grace.' Walter said making Cassie snort with laughter and Jasper's next comment made her laugh good-naturedly.

'It is merely a matter of hygiene.' huffed Jasper. 'Bats are filthy creatures!'

Walter laughed at Jasper's comment, before turning to Cassie.

'Anyway, I think we've just seen the first proof of what you can do.' said Walter. 'You are the Hero who can lead this land in a revolution.'

'Walter, I just killed bats. How is that proof of anything?' Cassie asked.

'Amy started with giant beetles,' shrugged Walter. 'Bats are just the beginning.'

And so they were. As they continued down the cavern path, more bats attacked and Jasper cowered again while Walter and Cassie shot bullets and fireballs at them.

'Another impressive display, madam.' Jasper said approvingly as he straightened his clothes, once the last of the bats was gone. 'To think, this morning my job consisted of laying out clothes for royalty. Now I'm a midnight snack for bats.'

'You'll get use to it!' chuckled Walter as the four of them continued on their way towards a man built tunnel. 'You might want to cover your noses from here on. It's the Bowerstone sewers.' he added warningly.

'Ew,' muttered Cassie. She was wearing one of her best pieces of clothing.

As they entered the sewers, Walter added to Jasper, 'You might want to cover your eyes too, Jasper. More bats!' Once all the bats were no more, Walter headed deeper into the sewers saying, 'You've certainly got the hang of that spell. '

The deeper we got into the sewers; Jasper began to speak once more.

'Ugh, what an unusual stench. I daresay we must be somewhere beneath Bowerstone Industrial.'

'Very likely,' agreed Walter. 'Not the safest place for us right now, but we should be able to find a way out of the city once we reach the surface...'

'And how do we do that exactly?' asked Cassie as they came to a dead end with nothing but a raised platform.

'Well have to use that cullis gate. Your mother had them built throughout Albion so she was able to get from one region to the next at nearly a moment's notice.' said Walter.

'What's a cullis gate?' asked Cassie, moving over to the platform which was a cullis gate.

'Sort of a magical transportation system for Heroes.'

'How does it work?'

'I don't know,' admitted Walter. 'Perhaps try casting a spell like you did in the catacombs.'

Cassie did as he suggested and to her surprise, she felt her surrounding disappear, before she appeared in a dusty, mess room with a map of Albion and Aurora in the middle. Moments later Walter and Jasper joined her. Jasper clearly hadn't gotten the hang of the cullis gate for the moment he appeared, he fell over.

'What is this place?' Cassie asked, helping Jasper up.

'You know, it must be...It's your mother's Sanctuary.' said a awe Walter. 'She use to speak of it often, but I never thought it was a real place. Well, I don't believe it. Jasper!' Walter exclaimed, looking down at the map of Albion and Aurora with a book on it. 'This book...there's a note with your name on it. Look.'

Jasper and Cassie hurried over and sure enough there was a note with Jasper written on it.

'That's not possible!' said Jasper, looking down at the book and note. '"For Jasper". Well, I grant you, it is possible, but it must be a coincidence.'

'Oh, don't be a dolt,' muttered Walter, shaking his head at the butler's antics. 'Amy must have left it here for you. What's it called?'

'The Book of Heroes,' answered Jasper, opening the book. 'How extraordinary.'

'Does it tell us how to get out?' asked Walter. He wasn't fascinated by books, unlike Jasper.

'This really is remarkable,' said Jasper, not hearing a word of what Walter had just said. 'Everything that we could possibly want to know about Heroes and this place is right here in these pages.'

'Good to know, but how do we get out of here?' asked Walter.

'Oh, um. I'll just find out now, shall I?' said Jasper.

'That would be appreciated.'

Five minutes later, Jasper came back with an answer.

'This map -' he pointed to the table '- functions as a travelling mechanism. Simply choose where you want to go and, well, it should take you there.'

'Marvellous! Right, we can use that!' said a happy Walter. 'We'll have plenty of time to explore this place later, but right now we have a rather large task ahead of us.'

'But I don't even know where to start,' said Cassie, sounding a little put off.

'Our first stop will be the mountains of Mispeak.' said Walter. 'There are people there who would make great allies. They won't offer their allegiance easily, but they despise Logan, and if anyone can persuade then, it's a Hero.'

'Even if that Hero is the king's sister?' asked a doubtful Cassie.

'Yes, even though you are Logan's sister.' said Walter.

'I will continue to become acquainted with this Sanctuary.' Jasper informed Cassie and Walter. 'No doubt we will need to make full use of its facilities.'

'Right, all right then. Find Mispeak on the map and let's see if that book's telling us the truth.' said Walter, looking around for Mispeak.

Cassie joined Walter at the map.

'There!' said Cassie, pointing to the map.

'Okay, now what do we do?' asked Walter.

'The book says, that Cassie will need to use her Guild Seal,' said Jasper.

Cassie unbuckled her Seal and took Walter's hand before moving it over Mispeak's Dweller Camp. Next thing she knew, the Sanctuary was disappearing and she felt the cold mountain breeze on her face.

* * *

><p><strong>Azaelia Silmarwen facebook page: <strong>link on profile  
><strong>Written:<strong> 17 November 2011

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT CLAIM OWNERSHIP OVER THE ORIGINAL COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL IN THIS STORY. THIS IS A NON-PROFIT FANDUB CREATED BY FANS, FOR FANS. NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED. FAIR USE ONLY.**


	6. So The Rebellion Begins: Allies

**CHAPTER SIX: SO THE REBELLION BEGINS: ALLIES**

Cassie opened her eyes and realised that Walter and her must be in the Dweller Camp in the Mispeak Mountains. She had never been anywhere so cold. Whilst the breeze was refreshing, it also sent chills down her spine. She moved closer to Walter, who wrapped his arm around her shoulders to keep her warm.

'I'd forgotten how bloody cold it is up here,' muttered Walter, keeping her close. 'Come on. The people here call themselves Dwellers.' explained Walter as they walked along a snowy path, weaving in and out of people and caravans. 'They're tough, loyal, and like I told you earlier, they hate Logan's guts.'

'I can tell,' said a intimidated Cassie as many Dwellers stopped and glared at her. They recognised her as Logan's sister. Cassie was gratefully that Walter was there with her. If he hadn't of been, she probably would have been attacked by now.

'Yep. It may not look like much, but this is where the revolution begins.' continued Walter. 'This is what Logan has reduced them to. He's taken control of these mountains and started destroying its forests.'

As they rounded a corner and began to walk up a hill, they saw a group of Dwellers there begging for food, but what broke Cassie's heart was when she saw a little girl amongst them, and the little girl's comment made Cassie feel like a cold, selfish, spoilt princess. She had never realised how much her brother sheltered her from.

'I'll trade you my doll for some food,' begged the little girl. 'She's really good. Honest. Her name's Sadie.'

Cassie paused and searched her pockets, but she had no money on her. Why would she? If she ever wanted something all she had to do was ask Logan. Sensing Cassie's emotions towards the little girl, Walter slipped a few gold pieces into her hand.

'I'll pay you back, I promise,' whispered Cassie. Walter shrugged it off as Cassie approached the girl. Everyone stopped and watched.

'I know it's not much, little one, but do you think this will be enough, for the time being, to look after Sadie?' Cassie asked, putting the money into the girl's tiny hand.

The girl's eyes widened.

'Thank you so much!' she cried, and she ran of yelling out to her mother who was tending to two boys even younger than the girl.

Cassie smiled sadly upon seeing how the young had to live, and she startled briefly when Walter put his arm back around her shoulders to keep her warm.

'I knew they'd have a hard time finding food, but I had no idea it was this bad,' muttered Walter, leading her away from the now staring people. 'The man we need to convince is Sabine. A proud old sod, but a good man and a good leader. He won't give his allegiance easily, especially to Logan's sister.'

'Then what should we do?' asked Cassie.

'I'd best speak with him alone first. Yes I think that would be best.' Walter said after a moment, before looking Cassie up and down. 'You know, maybe you ought to find some new clothes while I talk to Sabine. Something slightly less...regal. We don't need this kind of attention,' he added, motioning to the people that had followed us curiously. 'Here -' he handed her a bag of gold, '-I only have a little bit of gold, but it should be enough. Maybe you can spread what's left among the people. They need it more than we do.'

Cassie couldn't have agreed more. She was going to help these people in any way that she could. Her mother would have never let her people starve or fall into poverty.

Cassie wished Walter luck, and went back down the hill searching for a clothes stall or something. Half an hour later she found one and bought a Dwellers outfit. With the outfit in hand, she began to wonder where she could go to get changed. It was then that she got the fright of her life...

'Hello, madam, this is Jasper...' said Jasper's voice making Cassie jump and look around. Lightning sat and watched her with his head cocked to one side.

'Jasper?' breathed the startled Cassie, still looking around. 'Where are you?'

'In the Sanctuary, madam. I am talking to you through the Guild Seal,' explained Jasper as Cassie tried to lower her heart rate. 'If you would like to return to the Sanctuary, I will be able to show you its dressing room.'

Cassie did say he said and used the Guild Seal to teleport back to the Sanctuary. Once back at the Sanctuary, she could see that Jasper had done some cleaning. He was currently standing near a door with a coat hanger above it.

'Ah, hello.' he said when he spotted Cassie. 'Now, included in the Sanctuary is a dressing room. Step through and I'll show you.' he added, pointing to the door with the coat hanger above it.

Cassie obeyed and walked through the door. Once she arrived in the changing room, she couldn't help but gasp. She had never seen so many clothes in all her life. There were bandit outfits, highwayman, farmer, noble, commoner, middle class, and many more outfits that had belonged to her mother. All of which we're her size, except in height. They were all presented on mannequins.

'I've taken the liberty of laying out your clothes on these mannequins, which should serve as convenient storage for any garments you acquire during your travels, just like your mother.' said Jasper, who had followed Cassie. 'Now, why don't you change into your new Dweller outfit?' he suggested.

Cassie agreed with him and went to get dressed. Hopefully she would be warm wearing it. She didn't know how the Dwellers could survive there where it was so cold. It surprised her that her mother didn't have a Dwellers outfit.

Cassie didn't bother putting on the Dweller cap - she hated wearing hats - and once she was dressed and had taken off her make-up and jewellery, she walked back over to Jasper.

'There you are. You look just like a Dweller.' he said approvingly. 'I hope this new outfit is as comfortable as your royal attire, although I suspect the chances of that are quite low.'

'You've got that right. How can the Dwellers' live in these things? They are so itchy!' complained Cassie, resisting the urge to scratch.

Jasper chuckled quietly as Cassie left to go back to the Dweller Camp, to meet Walter. As she walked through the camp, she distributed the money as Walter suggested, though many of the Dwellers accepted it suspiciously, thinking that it was some sort of trick.

Cassie meet Walter outside a pair of gates that led to where Sabine lived.

'That's more like it!' Walter said approvingly as Cassie ran over to him. 'The scruffy look suits you.'

'Thanks,' panted Cassie. Man was she unfit.

'I've spoken to Sabine, explained everything and he's - well, I told you he'd take some convincing.' shrugged Walter, before leading Cassie to where Sabine was.

As Cassie, Walter and Lightning were approaching Sabine's caravan, a huge man stepped in their way. Cassie automatically took a step back. The man was like a giant!

'Out of the way, Boulder. I can't see a thing,' came a heavy accented voice.

The giant, named Boulder, stepped out of the way to reveal a short old man sitting on a throne like chair, who Cassie knew to be Sabine. He wasn't what Cassie had been expecting.

'So royalty walks into our home. Princess Cassandra, no less. You're a long mile from the castle, Princess.' said Sabine, walking towards her. 'What do you think of our home then? Do you like what your brother has done to us?'

Cassie didn't answer, but Sabine hadn't been looking for an answer.

'These mountains have always been ours, and now Logan's taken then, and stripping them of all life.' fumed Sabine. 'Oh, we're ready to go to war...but why should we follow Logan's kin?'

'Because you can trust me. You have my word!' Cassie said confidently.

Sabine snorted.

'We don't take much stock in words round these parts. We're simple folk. Ain't that right, Boulder?' Sabine added to Boulder.

Boulder only grunted.

'Then what do you want?' asked Cassie.

'Proof,' Sabine said simply.

'What kind of proof?'

'First, prove you are truly, as Walter claims, a Hero.' said Sabine, counting on his fingers. 'This is easily done. There is a secret chamber beneath the town of Brightwall, built by your own mother.' he said as Lightning started to bark. 'Only Heroes can survive its trials and reach the relics within. Bring me one of these ancient objects and I will believe you. Second, prove you are a warrior worthy of leading us into battle. You can do this by slaying the mercenaries who plague Mispeak Valley and who have long soured our existence. Third, prove you are a true leader. Persuade our neighbours in Brightwall to share what food they have with us. Boulder,' he added, looking over at the big man who was patting a happy Lightning.

Boulder groaned and moved away from Lightning. Lightning didn't look to happy.

'If we cannot eat, we will die,' continued Sabine as though nothing had happened. 'And the dead make poor allies.'

'Is that all?' asked a stunned Cassie.

'Yep. That's the lot. Off you go then. Good luck. Nice knowing you.' Sabine said cheerfully.

What did he mean "nice knowing you"? Thought Cassie as Walter lead her out of camp.

'It's nice to see Sabine hasn't mellowed with age,' chuckled Walter as he lead her out of camp. 'But anyway, I know the place he mentioned. Amy built the chamber under the Brightwall Academy. Albion's greatest seat of learning...or at least it was until Logan closed it down. Just show the old librarian your Guild Seal. He'll know what it means.'

'What about you? What are you going to do?' Cassie asked as they stopped at the Dweller Camp entry.

'I'll try to find out more about these mercenaries. I'll see you in Brightwall when I have some information.'

Cassie nodded to him and followed the path to Brightwall.

The worst thing Cassie came across on her way to Brightwall through Mispeak Valley was wolves. Blood thirsty, hungry wolves. But it was nothing she couldn't handle with her fire gauntlet. If she didn't have that, she wouldn't know where she'd be. Though she did get one surprise and that was when Lightning attacked one of the wolves and ended up killing it. Maybe he was like Storm after all.

Upon arriving in Brightwall, Cassie decided to change her outfit for she was beginning to sweat in her Dweller outfit. Using the Guild Seal, Cassie travelled to the Sanctuary and went in search for some appropriate clothes. She browsed through the different mannequins her mother had, before she noticed one apart from all the others. On the mannequin was an outfit that look highly familiar to Cassie. It was a red and green highwayman coat with a matching hat, short, light brown pants, corset and thigh high boots. Something about that outfit kept drawing Cassie in, and in the end she put the outfit on and walked outside to where Jasper was currently cleaning out a doggie bed for Lightning.

'Jasper, why does this outfit look so familiar to me?' asked Cassie.

'What outfits that, madam?' asked Jasper as he turned around. He gasped the moment he caught sight of her.

'What's wrong?'

'Nothing, it's just that you look so much like your mother in that outfit.' Jasper told her, tears slowly forming in his eyes. 'That was her favourite outfit, though no one could understand why. I guess you have the same taste as Queen Amy.'

'I don't know. I just felt drawn to it. But I have to admit, it is really comfortable. Do you think it will be alright if I wear it?'

'Of course.'

'In that case, I better get to the Academy. See you later, Jasper!' said Cassie, before disappearing and arriving in Brightwall.

As Cassie walked through Brightwall many of its citizens stopped and stared at her, before muttering amongst themselves. Cassie only heard snippets of what they said.

'Did you see who I thought I saw?'

'It couldn't be...'

'Do you think that's Lionheart's ghost?'

'No, I-I think that was the princess!'

Cassie felt honoured to learn that the citizens thought that she was her mother, though she knew that she would eventually get sick of it and she would probably have hated them saying that if Amy was still alive.

When Cassie entered the Academy, at first she thought that she was the only one there, but she was proven wrong when a librarian started to talk in a bored monotone voice, without looking up from his paperwork.

'The library is closed by order of the king.' he said. 'We don't serve drinks. We don't sell chicken feed. Please leave before the soldiers suspect you of gaining any real knowledge.'

Cassie stood there for a moment, before clearing her throat scaring the old librarian.

'Sweet papyrus!' he yelled, looking Cassie up and down. 'Queen Amy? No, I must be dreaming.'

'Believe me, you're not,' smiled Cassie, showing him the Guild Seal. 'And, I'm not Queen Amy,' she added.

'Then you are...?'

'Princess Cassandra, yes.'

'Oh my. Please, come this way.' The librarian Samuel said, leading the way deep into the Academy. 'Your mother told me that one day a challenger bearing the Seal would come seeking entrance to the Reliquary, but I never imagined it would happen in my lifetime. It was she who founded the Academy. Of course, I have often wondered how she would react to see it in its present state. I doubt she would have expected Logan to close it down, seeing as he use to love coming here and reading the contents of our library. Anyway, here we are.' he added as they stopped before a huge silver door with different mechanisms in place to lock it. 'I can't tell you how many of our researches and professors have studied this door, hoping to unlock its mechanism. But I knew there was only one thing that would ever open it.'

'The Guild Seal,' breathed Cassie as she remembered the stories Walter use to tell her, especially about the Guild Seal unlocking a tomb that started Amy's journey.

With shaking hands, Cassie put the Seal into the door and before their very eyes, the mechanisms began to unlock.

Inside the Reliquary, Cassie found a number of things such as gold, gems, old books and many other bits and pieces. She also learnt about flit switches and whilst she was there, Jasper called her back to the Sanctuary where he had found all of Amy's old weapons. Another thing she found in the Reliquary was hollow men and lots of them. Hadn't her mother ever heard of a guard dog or had these creatures just decided to move in after her death? By the end of her journey through the Reliquary, Cassie discovered that she was very skilled with a blade and with using magic, but she sucked when it came to using a ranged weapon. She guessed that Logan got those geans. Right at the very end of the Reliquary she heard a musical tune. The same tune she remembered her mother humming to her as she rocked her to sleep. As Cassie approached a pedestal, she saw that the music as coming from a strange music box. As she picked it up, white light surrounded her and she was once more standing in front of the Blind Seer, Theresa.

'You have done well,' smiled Theresa. 'Touching the Guild Seal was an indication of what you could become. Reaching the music box has proven what you already are. No one but a Hero could have done it. You have begun to learn what powers you possess, and there is still greater potential within you, having the parents that you do. But you have only taken the first step in your journey. Albion is crying out for a revolution, and for someone to lead it.'

'I know this already,' stated Cassie.

Theresa ignored her, like she had done many times with Amy.

'Winning supporters to your cause will be hard,' she continued. 'Leading them against Logan will be an even greater challenge. But it is one you must accomplish.'

'I'll make him pay for what he did,' growl Cassie as she thought back to Elliot. She would never forgive Logan for taking him away from her. Never.

'This is not a matter of personal vengeance.' Theresa said sternly. 'As long as your brother sits on the throne, Albion is in great danger.'

'Danger? Danger of what?' Cassie asked quickly.

Theresa did not answer, instead she said; 'Open the music box. It will show you the truth.'

Cassie did as she said and before she knew it she was standing in the War Room, but she was not alone. Logan stood looking down at the map of Albion and Aurora, while another man sat in the shadows with a goblet of wine in his hand. Cassie could not see his face. All that she could see was that he wore expensive clothes and that he was male and tall.

Her attention was soon taken away from the mysterious man as Logan began to speak.

'This is my Albion,' Logan said softly. 'Its cities will bow to my law or they will burn. Its mountains will bend to my will or they will fall. This is my Albion. Its people will do as I say or they will die. Its future will be as I decree of it will end. I have seen what must be done, and nothing will stand in my way. We will be greater and we will be stronger, no matter what sacrifices we must make. This is my Albion, and I will see it destroyed before I surrender it.'

Cassie gasped and she was once more standing in front of Theresa. She could not believe her ears. How could Logan be so heartless and cruel?

'If any part of you still doubted the necessity of a revolution, you have your answer.' said Theresa. 'The kingdom will face its own annihilation under your brother's rule. Now do whatever you must to gain your first ally, for you cannot lead a rebellion without followers. Sabine is a good man, and his people are strong.' Theresa said before disappearing.

Cassie looked around before concentrating on her Guild Seal. Next thing she knew, she was standing at the welcome desk in front of a startled Samuel.

'Blessed index cards, you made it!' exclaimed Samuel. 'This is cause for great rejoicing. Albion has a proper Hero again. If ever I can be of assistance, I will be honoured to serve you.'

Cassie nodded and left the Academy.

'I knew that you would succeed, madam,' said Jasper. Cassie could tell that he was smiling. 'You now have proof of your Heroic status. And I believe Walter has made some progress with the mercenary problem. He is waiting for you outside the local tavern.'

'Thanks Jasper,' said Cassie, before going looking for the tavern.

She soon found it alright and there was Walter waiting patiently for her.

'You were successful then?' Walter asked as Cassie stopped in front of him.

'Yes,' she smiled, showing him the music box, before putting it away in a bag that her mother use to use to put all the treasures she found on her journeys.

'Bloody marvellous!' said Walter. 'You'll be glad to know I have some information on the mercenaries Sabine mentioned. They're led by a man called Saker. He used to be a soldier, but always had more in common with bandits and cutthroats than the military. His men are holed up in a small fortress in the mountains, so it won't be easy to get in. But I have a plan.'

'And what is this plan?' asked a curious Cassie.

'Come with me and you'll see.'

Cassie followed Walter into a upstairs room in the tavern where they found two sleeping mercenaries. One was male with no hair and a beard while the other was female with short black hair, dark make-up and a weird tattoo on her right arm.

'Who are they?' Cassie demanded.

'Both of them are cold-blooded killers. The man's called Clarence, but everyone calls him Jimmy while the female is his girlfriend, Ulva.'

'Uh huh, but why are they here?'

'They were drinking in the pub all day, and generally making life unpleasant for everyone. It wasn't hard to get them completely pickled. These young thugs...bloody lightweights if you ask me.'

'So what have they got to do with your plan? Do they even have anything to do with your plan?' asked a confused Cassie.

'Yes. If you take her clothes, you'll have a free pass into their camp. Just try not to think about what those stains might be.' Walter added as Cassie examined Ulva's revealing top.

Cassie took the rest of Ulva's clothes, leaving her only in her undies - the top couldn't be worn with a bra - and went into a room to get changed. She was not happy when she came back out.

'I look like a slut or something!' she whinged to Walter.

He looked over at her.

'Nah, they wear even less clothes. If it makes you feel better, your mother had to go undercover as one once.' he said, frowning slightly.

'That explains the outfit in the dressing room,' muttered Cassie. 'What?' she added, noticing the way Walter was looking at her.

'Hmm, you're not likely to convince anyone without a bit of extra effort.' explained Walter. 'Even these idiots will notice if you don't have the right coloured hair or style, make-up and tattoos.'

'What? You expect me to get that foul tattoo on my body!' exclaimed a horrified Cassie. 'I don't want to spend the rest of my life with that one my body!'

'You don't have to get an actually tattoo.' Walter said patiently. 'If Amy ever needed to get a tattoo for a disgust, she would just you ink. It wears off after a day or two.' Cassie nodded her head. She would do that. 'I'm sure you can get hold of what you need around town though. In the meantime, I'll find out who to talk to about getting food to the Dwellers. They might not have much to spare here, but they're kind people. They'll just need a little convincing. Anyway, good luck dealing with Saker and his mercenaries. It will be your first taste of real battle, but I know you'll do just fine.'

'I hate to tell you but I've already been in a battle against hollow men,' sighed Cassie, before walking over to the stylist to get her hair cut, styled and dyed. Once that was done, the stylist started on her make-up before finishing with her tattoo. The stylist must have found her odd to be wanting the tattoo done in normal ink. Once it was all complete, Cassie looked at herself in the mirror and she could hardly recognise herself. There was now a great resemblance between herself and Ulva.

The moment Cassie walked out of the shop, Lightning growled. He didn't like her new look.

'I don't like it either; Lightning, but I have no choice.' Cassie said, bending down and patting his head. 'Come on; let's get this errand over and done with.'

She was grateful that Logan couldn't see her now. He's probably go ballistic. On second thoughts, she would actually love to go and see him, just to see his reaction.

When Cassie arrived at the Mercenary Camp, she found their fortress gate shut and locked. She knocked on the wooden gate. Moments later, another mercenary popped his head over the wall to see who it was.

'Hi, Ulva. Back from killing some Dwellers? Where's Jimmy? What's with the dog?' The mercenary asked.

Cassie didn't answer. She knew that she would give her disguise away if she spoke. She hoped the other wouldn't be suspicious if she didn't talk...he wasn't. Maybe she wasn't the talking type. Thankfully he wasn't suspicious about Lightning either. She should have left him with Walter.

'Come on in,' he grumbled, before muttering on about Ulva been too good to talk to other mercenaries.

Cassie entered without hesitation. She walked confidently through the camp, but the entire time her heart was beating painfully against her chest. She ignored all the other mercenaries, until she came to the third gate. It was then she ran into trouble. The two mercenaries guarding the gate were a bit more perceptive than the last two.

'Ulva? Is that really you? You look different somehow. Were your eyes always light green?' Asked one of the two. He sounded really confused.

'Nah, the lovely Ulva has lovely chocolate brown eyes,' sighed the other before realising what he had just said. 'That's not her! That's not Ulva!' he yelled, alerting the other mercenaries.

Rats, thought a bitter Cassie as she began to fight off the advancing mercenaries. Why Ulva couldn't of had the same coloured eyes as her? She would have made it through otherwise. In fact she had to fight the rest of the way to Saker, which annoyed her greatly. What if she eventually got to Saker and she couldn't defeat him because she was worn out from fighting the other mercenaries? No, she couldn't think like that. She would defeat Saker, but it didn't help when she was near the end of the mercenary camp and walked straight into a fighting ring. The moment she was inside, the gates swung shut and from above she was surrounded by a hundred if not more mercenaries.

I have a really bad feeling about this, thought Cassie. There's no way I'll be able to fight all of them off.

As some of them made a move to jump down to fight her, a new commanding voice met her ears and she knew that it was Saker.

'Leave her,' he ordered. 'She's mine!' He then jumped down and Cassie noticed that he was roughly the same size as Boulder. She was starting to think that she'd rather fight the other mercenaries. 'You've left quite a trial of bodies,' said Saker, walking towards her. Cassie raised her sword. 'You're not one of Sabine's Dwellers, that's for damn sure. But you'll die like one!' Then, without warning he attacked.

Cassie never knew how she survived that battle against him. He was bigger and strong than her, plus he clearly had more fighting experience than her. She had never fought anyone or anything like him before. But in the end Saker fell to his knees in defeat, too tired to carry on.

'Stop!' he begged of Cassie. 'You've won. This battle is yours. Kill me or let me live. It's your choice, and my men will honour it. We may be nothing but mercenaries, but we have our codes, like any other soldiers. We'll leave the Dwellers be no matter what you do. That's a warrior's promise.'

Cassie looked down at the big man before her, before extending her hand to him. She could tell when a man gave his word and actually meant it. Saker was one of those men.

Saker looked at her hand for a moment, before accepting it, and she helped him to his feet, before smiling up at him.

'To many have lost their lives in this war. It is time that stopped.' Cassie said firmly.

'Thank you,' said Saker. 'I won't forget this. Let the stranger go!' he added loudly to the other mercenaries.

But Cassie heard none of it, for the world around her changed once more.

'You have taken another step on the road to rule. Sparing Saker has won over the support of his followers. Word is already spreading of your compassion and your strength.' Said Theresa, before sending her back.

'Here, take this flag,' said Saker as though no time had passed. 'If you ever need our help, send it to us and we shall come. You are always welcome amongst my men.'

'I thank you, Saker. You are truly a man of your word and more,' said Cassie, accepting the flag and leaving the camp. The mercenaries were cleaning up the dead bodies.

'It is a momentous occasion, madam.' Jasper said to Cassie as she walked through the camp. 'Your first victory in battle. I'm no expert on personal combat, but I would say, based on the fact that you're not dead, you acquitted yourself rather well.'

'Thanks Jasper,' chuckled Cassie, before acting as though she hadn't said anything when a few mercenaries that heard her, looked over at her. She wondered if people ever thought that her mother was crazy when she spoke to Theresa through the Guild Seal.

'It's hard to believe just a few days ago I was rousing you from a comfortable bed...' continued Jasper. Cassie could hear the pride in his voice. 'It would seem that you have completed two of the tasks that Sabin set for you. If you return to Brightwall, you will find Walter has some news on how to fulfil the last requirement.'

'Where in Brightwall is he?'

'The Brightwall Tavern. It seems as though he had become quite attached to the place.' answered Jasper.

Cassie tried not to laugh at his comment.

**-THE HAPPENINGS-**

Cassie found Walter in the same room she had found Ulva and Jimmy, only this time there wasn't a mercenary in sight and Samuel was with Walter drinking ale. Due to Cassie's disguise, they didn't recognise her at first.

'Oh my,' said Samuel, while Walter tensed up before saying, 'Cass? Is that you?'

'No, I'm Ulva,' Cassie said sarcastically.

'I can barely recognise you. Did the plan work?'

'It did at first until someone realised that Ulva has chocolate brown eyes, not green. However, I still managed to stop the mercenaries attacking the Dwellers. Saker gave me his word.' said Cassie, joining them at the table. 'How goes the last requirement?'

'Brightwall has no overabundance of resources itself,' answered Samuel. 'The king's levies are rather steep and we face shortages more often than is comfortable. However, were you to improve things around Brightwall, the people would be most grateful, and when people are grateful, they're also charitable. I'm sure they would find it in their hearts to send aid to those poor people.'

'There you have it,' said Walter. 'The way I see it, you will need all the followers you can get if you're going to lead a successful rebellion. What better time to start?'

'I heartily agree with Sir Walter - pardon me for overhearing,' said Jasper.

'That's alright, Jasper,' said Cassie. Samuel looked at her quickly and then at the Guild Seal she was wearing. Understanding passed over his face and she smiled at him.

'As it happens, I've learned of a promising method for amassing followers. If you'll return to the Sanctuary at your earliest convenience, I can show you what I mean.'

'Sure. Samuel, Walter. I will see you later.' Cassie said, getting to her feet before travelling to the Sanctuary.

When she arrived in the Sanctuary, Jasper looked disapprovingly at the way she was dress, but said nothing of it. Instead he explained how she could gain followers.

'Ah, now the book says there is an additional rather amazing ability about the Sanctuary's map table: it can help you find people who are in need of a Hero. I often wondered how Queen Amy knew who needed help.' he added.

Cassie went over to the map table and looked around Brightwall. She could see that a number of villagers needed her help. At first she didn't know who to help first, but in the end she decided to help Bernard and Pasty with their chickens.

'Right, I'm off again,' began Cassie, but when she caught sight of her reflection, she said, 'But first I think I'll go and clean myself up. '

While Cassie could do nothing about her hair dye - she would have to wait for it to come out - she was able to scrub of her ink tattoo and make-up, before getting dressed in her original outfit. The same outfit her mother use to wear.

Once she was ready, she headed back to Brightwall and over to where Bernard was standing looking anxious.

'Bernard?' Cassie asked, walking over to the man.

'Yes, that's me.'

'Hi, I'm Cassie. I'm here to help you with your chicken problem.'

'You are? Oh that's great! Somehow the gate got open and all of my chickens have escaped. I don't know how they did it, and I know I probably never will. Chickens are exceptionally intelligent buggers. Anyway, you'll need this,' he said, handing Cassie a chicken costume. 'Contrary to what most people think, chickens are very crafty.' he said, noticing the look Cassie was giving him. He couldn't be serious. 'They won't fall for any of that, "Here chicky, chicky. I've got some lovely treats for you". Oh no, too smart. You have to defeat them psychologically. Now, they won't remain one concentrated force. They will have re-deformed into groups of three or so, to maximise their tactical advantage. When you find one of these squads flap your wings and such and they should follow you back here. But don't let them try and negotiate with ya. You do not want those little buggers in your head,' he added with a chuckle.

Cassie smiled and walked of a short distance so she could go to the Sanctuary's dressing room. Cassie was beginning to question his sanity, but then, she was beginning to question her own for agreeing to wear a chicken suit and go around clucking and flapping her arms like a chicken. And there was people thinking that there was something wrong with her brother!

Once in her chicken outfit, she came out from behind the screen as Jasper enter the room carrying some new dyes that he found. He stopped dead when he saw her.

'You're dressed as a chicken. What are you...what are...what are you planning to do...dressed as a chicken?'

Cassie just shook her head, going red, and left the sanctuary to go and find those bloody chickens. In the end, she rounded up all nine chickens and had them safely back with Bernard.

'Thanks, I -' began Bernard, but he was interrupted by his wife as she came waltzing towards them, looking disapprovingly at Bernard.

'Oh Bernard, you've gone and locked them up again.' said an angry Patsy. 'This isn't right! They deserve to be free!'

'You're always on about the chickens and their freedom. You know what I think?' said an equally angry Bernard. 'I think it was you let them out!'

'You're right. I admit it! I couldn't live with myself any longer, being complicit in this chicken oppression.'

'But they might have destroyed the entire town! Possibly the world!'

Yep, he was insane. Thought Cassie.

'They might have gone off to live peacefully on their own! They might have created great works of art or literature! We don't know, and we have no right to take away their fundamental liberties based on our own prejudices!' snapped Patsy.

'Well, now it's clear taking away their liberties isn't enough. I have to assume you'll try to facilitate another escape...and that means the only choice is to kill them all!' declared Bernard.

'Oh, no, Bernard! No, don't!' pleaded Patsy. 'All right, keep them locked up, at least so we can talk about this!'

Much to Cassie's dismay, Bernard turned to her and roped her into the discussion.

'You...you infiltrated the chickens, you lived among them. You know them better than anyone. What's to be done?' he demanded.

Cassie just stared at them, before saying bluntly, 'They're chickens. I don't think there's any harm in letting them live.'

'All right, we'll let them live,' grumbled Bernard, turning to his wife. 'But only if you swear never to let them out again.'

'All right, all right...we'll work this out,' agreed Patsy.

'I hope I haven't made a terrible mistake. But if I killed them...I would just have made them martyrs.'

Cassie quickly left and went back to the Sanctuary to find someone else to help. She hoped she did not have to help another insane person. Little did she know that she would have to do something nearly as bad.

Cassie made her way to the Brightwall Academy, for Jasper had told her that two men, Lambert and Pinch, needed help putting on a play. She soon found the two men bickering outside the Academy.

'You, good lady,' said the man in green the moment he saw Cassie approach, 'you who live in such a tumultuous epoch. Do you not thirst for the drama and emotion of a properly structured tragic play?'

'Er,' said Cassie, but she was saved from answering for the other man, the one in red said, 'Of course you don't. You want to escape your troubles. You want to be made merry, you want to be amused.'

'It is no good,' sighed the green man. 'We shall never agree, Pinch.'

'Ah, if only we could get our hands on Morley's lost play.' agreed Pinch. 'It would solve all of our problems.'

'Morley's Lost Play?' repeated Cassie. 'Isn't that play meant to hold both tragedy and humour?'

'Yes,' answered Lambert, looking impressed that she had heard of it. 'It is said to bring together the opposites of tragedy and comedy in an exquisite marriage of forms.'

'But perhaps you can find it?' asked Pinch, taking in Cassie's outfit and weapons.

'Yes, we beg you.' said Lambert. 'The theatre, the muses, the very heart and soul of this town, will thank you.'

'Sure, but I'll do it without the thanks of the heart and soul of the town,' said Cassie. 'Where do you think I should start?'

'The library,' Lambert answered swiftly.

'If it's in the library, why don't you go and look yourselves?' asked Cassie.

'We did, well, we did commission an elderly detective to search the library for clues as to the play's whereabouts, but he never returned. Plus King Logan has made it clear that he doesn't want anyone browsing its shelves.'

'Right,' muttered Cassie, walking into the Academy.

What felt like hours, though it probably was, later of searching the shelves, Cassie finally found some clues. As she walked deeper into the Academy, pass the room that held the entrance to the Reliquary, a voice echoed around the dimly lit corridor.

'Turn back now, mortal one...' it said.

Cassie paused for a second before hurrying through the doors that had just slammed shut in front of her. While others might have ran away from the voice, it encouraged Cassie to move on.

'Stay away from this accursed place,' said the voice again, making papers fly out of books as she ran down another corridor, before slamming another door in her face. 'Only death and insanity awaits you...'

Yet again, Cassie ignored the warnings and entered the room. The room was covered with dust and spider webs with the only light source coming from a blue, glowing book floating above a pedestal. Cautiously, Cassie moved forward and stood in front of the book.

'Don't pick it up...' the voice yelled, panicking.

Cassie did the opposite.

She picked up the book and looked around. Nothing happened. Shrugging, she opened it and flicked through its pages before giving a slight yell as a ghost head popped out of the book. She recognised the head as Philipth Morley's head from a picture in a history book.

'You lot just can't leave well enough alone, can you?' he yelled at her. 'Bloody literary tourists. Bane of my afterlife!'

Then, before Cassie could even blink, she was sucked into the book and her world went black.

When she came to her senses again, she saw that she was lying on the ground with the ghost of Morley standing above her glaring. Cassie quickly leaped to her feet and looked around. She had no idea where she was.

'Listen you!' Morley said sternly, snapping Cassie's attention back to him. 'You're not getting my lost play, you hear? It's rubbish. Worse than rubbish. I mean, what was I thinking, mixing tragedy and comedy? I must have been off my rocker!' he was talking more to himself than to Cassie, before disappearing muttering to himself.

Cassie's eyes travelled over the different houses that lined the street, trying to figure out where she was when a voice spoke behind her.

'It would seem, my dear, you have been apprehended by the ghost of Phillipth Morley.' An oldish man said. 'That makes us both his captives.'

'And who are you?' asked Cassie.

'I am Ransom Lockyer.'

'Ransom Locke? As in the famous detective?'

'Yes, yet here I am, ready to live out the rest of my days trapped in a book.' said Locke.

'A book? You mean we're stuck in one of Morley's plays?' asked a startled Cassie.

'Yes. As far as I can deduce,' said Locke, leading the way down a street where a mannequin dressed in the exact same outfit Cassie had worn to see Elliot on that...on that horrible day, 'we are currently in a scene from one of Morley's greatest plays. "The Near Tragedy of Oliver and Ethel".'

'As fascinating as that is, how is that suppose to help us escape?' demanded Cassie, stopping in front of the mannequin.

'I believe that if we are to escape, we must act out the scene, but performing is not one of my talents.' said Locke. 'If I am correct, putting on this costume -' he motioned to the mannequin '- should set things in motion.'

'What do you mean - wait, you want me to act?' said a shocked Cassie.

'How else are we to escape? I cannot act.'

'Nor can I! My talents lie in fighting, politics and sucking up to my older brother, King Logan!' exclaimed Cassie. 'I know nothing of acting and drama!'

'But I'm sure you know about love,' argued Locke. 'This scene is from a beautiful love tragedy.'

'I am no stranger to heartbreak,' admitted Cassie, thinking back to Elliot's death. 'Very well. Anything to get out of here,' she muttered, grabbing the clothes, walking off where no one could see her, and began to get dressed. When she emerged, she was startled to see an audience of ghosts. 'Great, just great,' said a bitter Cassie as a ghost appeared in front of her.

'Oh Ethel, my love, my life, my sun.' he said. 'If thou wouldst but give me one sign, one gesture that would speak of your affection. Then might I think this grey existence worth living.'

'Huh?' said Cassie, looking over at Locke.

'Ah, yes, a classic moment in the play. You are Ethel, the beautiful young daughter of a dung merchant -'

'Must be pretty expensive dung,' muttered Cassie. She was wearing a very expensive dress after all. Logan always made sure she had the best.

'- Show Oliver that you love him and we may be able to leave this scene.' concluded Locke.

'Okay,' muttered Cassie, taking a deep breath and closing her eyes. Just imagine he's Elliot, she thought, before opening her eyes once more. 'My heart is your, my love.' Cassie said voice thick with emotion. She had said those exact same words to Elliot when he asked her if she loved him.

'Let the heavens and the seas, the toads and the eels sing the songs in my heart, for she doth love me and all is well!' said the ghost playing Oliver. 'We shall meet again in the morrow, my little ferret, and elope into the sunset to live out our days in wondrous joy.'

'I wish,' muttered Cassie, still thinking of Elliot.

'A magnificent rendition.' said Locke. 'Truly. I applaud you.'

'Thanks,' she muttered before getting changed back into her original outfit and to grab her weapons.

When she came back, Morley appeared before her, looking slightly impressed.

'Hmm. I see you are gifted with remarkable literary cunning.' said Morley. 'But can you really comprehend the depths of my works? We shall see.'

The world around Locke and Cassie blurred and the scene changed. Looking around, Cassie could see that they were in some sort of throne room. Maybe she would have to act like a Princess. How easy would that be!

'Ah, yes.' said Locke as they walked over to the next costume with turned out to be...a chicken suit. As if Cassie hadn't been humiliated enough by chickens. 'This is un-doubtfully a scene from one of Morley's earlier, funnier plays, "Bloodbath at the Royal Court".'

'I don't see anything funny about that,' muttered Cassie, glaring at the chicken suit in front of her. If only it would burst into flames. She looked down thoughtfully at her gauntlet.

'You might want to get changed into your costume,' suggested Locke, not noticing the look she was giving the feathery attire. 'The role of a fool is one filled with tragic depth. It will require a masterful performance.'

'Yeah, whatever,' replied Cassie, walking off and getting changed. When she returned, she threw herself in the throne - as Locke told her to - and crossed her arms sulking a little. She _hated_ chickens.

'What fresh insolence is this? Out of my throne, you impertinent buffoon!' demanded the ghost playing King Row Low. A king who liked his comforts if his stomach was anything to go by. 'Stand before your king and do your jester's duty! 'Tis a troublesome time for this court and my crown grows heavy. So make me laugh, or I shall have your head!'

Slowly, Cassie rose from the throne and walked towards the ghost king. She did not know any jokes, so she did the next best thing. Whenever she was in a bad mood or just plain old sulking, Logan use to come along and tickle her. It always put her in a good mood afterwards. She just hoped it would work on the king...and that he was ticklish. Turned out that the king was very ticklish.

'Oh stop, it's too funny!' laughed the king as Cassie pulled away. 'I believe I'm in the right mood now to meet with those foreign delegates. I think I shall only behead half of them. Yes...'

Sighing, Cassie turned away to get changed once more and as she did, her thoughts turned to Logan. Was it possible that in future years, Logan would turn out to be like that king, killing mercilessly?

No, thought Cassie. Logan would never be like him. She could not imagine her brother with a huge gut like the king...nor would he order someone to make him laugh.

Morley was there when she re-appeared and yet again, he was impressed.

'You handled my royal dramas as well as you handle my romances,' he said. 'But, will your versatility extend to the more subtle domains of theatre, I wonder.'

If it is something I can base an event of my life on then I'm sure I can, thought Cassie as the scene began to change once more.

When the scene came in focus, Cassie and Locke saw that they were standing in a clearing of some sort of dark forest. In the middle of the clearing was a man's mercenary outfit. Locke paled.

'Oh dear,' he said.

'What?' Cassie asked nervously.

'Unless I'm mistaken, this is a scene from Morley's notoriously violent historical epic, "Titus the Mutilator, Part II".' explained Locke. 'Which would mean this is the gladiatorial arena from Act V. where Titus is finally slaughtered by savage warriors seeking revenge.'

'Dare I ask how you know so much about these plays and acts?' Cassie asked.

'It was a favourite scene of mine as a child. I must admit,' admitted Locke. 'I even had some pyjamas that looked just like that,' he added, motioning to the mercenary costume. 'Put it on and you like take on the greatest role of your life.'

Cassie did as he said and waited for a ghost to appear. She did not have to wait long.

'Titus!' yelled the ghost. 'Thy pox-membered body shall pay for thy monstrous villainy. My son lies dead because of you. Now shall revenge be mine, cold as your corpse and all the more flavoursome for it.'

Next minute Cassie was hit from behind with a blunt sword, making her gasp. She whipped around and killed the ghost that had hit her.

'Do try to make your demise convincing,' she heard Locke yell out.

She nodded and allowed herself to be hit again, before she blocked and striked. Again and again she repeated the pattern in different ways, before she let herself fall to the ground, where she then laid still. She felt the main ghost come over to her. She could fell his gaze upon her.

'Titus has fallen!' he yelled triumphantly. 'Vengeance is mine at last! But what is yonder scar upon his cheek? No...it cannot be!' he said, his voice full of agony. 'He was my son! Oh woe and wretched misery! I am undone! My heart breaks with grief! It has beat its last. Adieu, unkind world. Adieu.'

Sensing that the play was finished, Cassie casually climbed to her feet and went to get changed. She was not surprised to see Morley when she re-emerged.

'A tremendous performance!' congratulated Locke. 'For a moment, I believed you truly had passed on. I wonder what scene will follow now.'

'Oh, what scene could possible follow such a masterful rendition of my work? You have brought such depth and meaning to my words, I stand in awe.' said Morley. 'You have earned the prize that no mortal has ever been honoured with before: my missing play. I entrust it to you. For I know, you will do it justice!'

'Thank,' said Cassie. 'What's the missing play called?'

'I call it, "The Ham Sandwich"!' said Morley, before adding, 'Metaphorical title of course,' due to the look she had just given him.

When Cassie and Locke emerged from the book, they headed out side to find Lambert and Pinch.

'Ah, you have retrieved out aged investigator!' said a joyful Lambert as they walked towards the two men. 'Happy day! Have you perchance found...?' he trailed off, looking at Cassie anxiously. She smiled and handed him "The Ham Sandwich".

'We're saved, Lambert!' exclaimed Pinch.

'Oh, the joy in my bosom knows no bounds!' said an equally excited Lambert. 'Thank you. A million times, thank you!'

'He said "bosom".' laughed Pinch. 'It's already working. Comedy and tragedy will at last join hands!'

'I look forward to seeing it,' said Cassie. 'When will it be?'

'A few weeks from today,' answered Pinch. 'People from all over Albion come to see our plays.'

'Then I'll see you in a few weeks,' replied Cassie. 'Lambert, Pinch, Locke...good day,' she said before walking off to help some person with his gnomes.

After helping Brian bring his gnomes to life and after rescuing a child from a wolf-infested cave, Cassie returned to Samuel who was waiting at the entrance of Brightwall. When she got there, Cassie got a massive surprise to see most of Brightwall's population standing there as well.

'Samuel, what's with all the people?' Cassie asked, stopping next to him, but Samuel only smiled at her and addressed the crowd.

'Esteemed citizens of Brightwall,' he begun. 'Today we demonstrate the generous nature of our fair town. For too long have, our mountain neighbours suffered in silence, and now we extend a helping hand. But this effort would not have been possible without the courage and determination of one woman. The daughter of the old Hero Queen,' said Samuel, motioning to Cassie. 'From this day, we shall know you as...The Hero of Brightwall!'

Cassie smiled at Samuel and the cheering crowd before bowing her head humbly, before turning back to Samuel.

'Before you leave, we ask of you one favour,' said Samuel. 'As we pledge ourselves to you, so we hope that you will pledge to return Brightwall to its former glory, and re-open the Academy which your mother founded.' Samuel held out his hand.

Cassie stepped forward and took his hand firmly.

'I will,' she promised, which brought more cheers from the gathered crowd and the cheers grew louder when two written promises - both the exact same - were brought forward and she signed them without hesitation. One was to remain with the people of Brightwall while the other was to remain with Cassie. She was sure that Jasper could find a place for it in the Sanctuary.

'Very good, very good,' said Samuel, once the promise had been sealed. 'I expected nothing less from you!' He then turned to the gate through which four men were walking through, each carrying a crate. 'These volunteers shall carry the supplies to the Dweller camp. They may have them with our blessing.' He turned back to Cassie. 'I hope you will return one day, not just as our Hero, but as our Queen.'

'You can be sure of that,' smiled Cassie. 'Have you seen Walter?' she added looking around for her friend.

'Ah yes. He said that he would meet you at the Dwellers camp,' replied Samuel.

'In that case, I better not keep him waiting. I'll accompany the volunteers and protect them from wolves and any other nasties.'

With that said and a quick good bye, Cassie quickly went and joined the volunteers delivering the food to the Dweller camp, and it was a good thing she did. The wolves were drawn to them due to the spell of food. Cassie shuddered to imagine what would have happened to them if she wasn't there.

**-THE HAPPENINGS-**

As Cassie and the volunteers entered the Dweller camp, the Dwellers began to cheer and cry for joy as they realised what had happened. No longer would they starve, and all thanks to Logan's sister, the Princess. Cassie lead the crate carriers through the camp and over to where Sabine lived, which the crowd following them the entire way.

'Our Hero returns!' exclaimed a happy Sabine, when he caught sight of her. 'Bringing good tidings...and supper.'

'And the relic you asked me to acquire,' said Cassie, reluctantly handing over the music box. An item that her mother had sought to protect.

Sabine accepted it and began to try to open it.

'Damn thing doesn't open...How do you...? - Oh, well. I never thought you'd actually get it, tell you the truth,' shrugged Sabine, before handing it back to Cassie. He had seen the reluctant look on her face when she handed it over. Cassie was thrilled to have it back. 'We've been blessed, my friends,' Sabine told the crowd. 'We have made an alliance that has already brought us life. One day it will bring us much more. We require one more offering before we fight at your side,' he added to Cassie, who resisted the urge to groan.

'What is this offering?' asked Cassie.

'A promise.' Sabine said simply. 'Promise to restore these mountains to their full glory and to protect our right to dwell in them. And promise you will bring nothing but the fiercest justice upon Logan's head.'

Cassie hesitated and not over the first promise, but the latter. She did not know if she was able to hurt Logan, but then she remembered Elliot's death and she knew that she wanted revenge like Sabine.

Cassie looked Sabine straight in the eye and said firmly, in a voice that matched his own, 'I promise!'

'Then may we be carried into the castle by the dark storms of fury!' yelled Sabine, with a mad gleam in his eyes.

'You have to wait a little longer for that,' interrupted Walter, who had been standing next to him the entire time. 'It's still just us against a whole army. We need to recruit more people.

'I was afraid you'd come over all logical and sensible,' sighed a disappointed Sabine, before turning to Cassie. 'Well, you have brought us a feast and we are free to hunt again. We'll just keep on eating and drinking till you're good and ready. Right Boulder?'

Boulder gave a small grunt. Cassie was beginning to wonder if he could actually talk.

'He couldn't be happier,' said Sabine.

Just like in Brightwall, Cassie had to sign a written promise where both parties got a copy.

Next thing she knew, Cassie was summoned to the road to rule, as Theresa called it, and sure enough, there she was standing before another gate.

'You have made an important ally today,' began Theresa. 'The revolution cannot hope to succeed without fighters such as Sabine and his people in your side. You have the beginnings of an army now...'

When Cassie came back, Walter motioned for her to follow him.

'I couldn't be prouder of what you've accomplished here,' said Walter as they walked through the camp, 'but there is still much for us to do. And I know just where to find our next allies.'

'Dare I ask how you know these things?' laughed Cassie.

He winked at her.

'Did I ever tell you how glad I am that you are on my side? I doubt I would ever know where to begin to find allies. So, where are we going?'

'The station in Mispeak,' replied Walter as they left the camp.

'And then where?'

'Mourningwood.'

'Mourningwood? Isn't that the cemetery off Bowerstone that's become infested with hollow men?'

'Yes.'

'Why are we going there then? The only things that live there are, well, the dead!'

'No, there is a small village there,' said Walter, 'of the living,' he added, catching sight of Cassie's face.

'Uh huh,' said an unconvinced Cassie. Why would anyone want to live there?

* * *

><p><strong>Azaelia Silmarwen facebook page:<strong> link on profile**  
>Written: <strong>27 November 2011

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT CLAIM OWNERSHIP OVER THE ORIGINAL COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL IN THIS STORY. THIS IS A NON-PROFIT FANDUB CREATED BY FANS, FOR FANS. NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED. FAIR USE ONLY.**


	7. So The Rebellion Begins: Mourningwood an

**CHAPTER SEVEN: SO THE REBELLION BEGINS: MOURNINGWOOD AND THE RESISTANCE**

An hour or so later they arrived at the Mispeak Monorail Station.

'I can never get over this place,' admitted Walter as they waited for the monorail. 'Twenty years ago, it was just a damp, murky void in the middle of nowhere. Now people cue up to get dangled across it in a steel box...and here it comes,' he added, looking out into the distance as a big metal steam thing came around a corner attached to the rails above.

As Cassie and Walter watched the monorail approached they both realised that something was wrong and before their very eyes they watched as it broke away from the rails above and plummeted down to earth, before exploding in flames.

'No!' yelled Walter, while a shaken Cassie put her hands to her mouth as whispered, 'Those poor people.'

'Come on. We have to get down there,' said Walter, leading the way, down the platform and over to an elevator. 'This must be the way down. We have to find those people. See if there are any survivors.'

Cassie nodded and walked into the elevator, not expecting to find any survivors. Turning around, she saw Walter taking several deep breaths before joining her in the elevator.

'Let's get down,' muttered Walter. 'I don't want to spend any more time in this box than I have to.'

Walter spent the entire ride down with his eyes closed and the moment they reached the canyon floor, he was the first one out saying, 'It fell somewhere up ahead, come on.'

'I'm coming,' Cassie said, hurrying along after Walter, before half stopping as she heard someone laughing, and an evil laugh at that.

'I'd know those sounds anywhere,' muttered Walter. 'Maybe the monorail falling wasn't an accident after all.'

'If it was done on purpose, then those that did it are going to pay with their lives,' growled Cassie, drawing her sword.

As they arrived closer to the wreckage site, the laughter got louder as did the banging of steal. Walter drew his gun and as they rounded the corner, they saw a group of small Hobbes running around on fire and playing on the wrecked monorail with dead bodies around them. Cassie's blood began to boil as she looked at the faces of the dead children that had been on the monorail.

Walter's blood must have been boiling too for he said angrily, 'Hobbes! I knew it! Don't leave any of the little bastards alive!'

'Don't worry, I won't,' growled Cassie, striking the closes hobbe with her sword and throwing a fireball at another.

Within minutes, the dead bodies of the Hobbes they had just slaughtered surrounded Walter and Cassie.

'That's it,' panted Walter, leading Cassie along a railway bridge and through the cavern. 'But there'll be more. That's something you can count on with Hobbes. There's always more. I could never understand your mother's truce with those horrid creatures.'

'Truce?' repeated Cassie.

'Oh yeah, you would have been too young to remember. Your mother made a truce with them due to some diary that she read detailing different facts about Hobbes. She was able to get to know the leaders of different tribes...basically, she was able to stop them from attacking our young, and people were told to leave them alone, but when your mother died, the hobbes broke the truce and are as mean and smelly as they were before the truce.'

'Right, so tell me again why we are going to Mourningwood?' asked Cassie as they started fighting more Hobbes.

'We're going there to find some old friends,' said Walter. 'Let's just say that I wouldn't want to go into any battle without them on my side.'

Cassie only nodded and walked on.

As Cassie and Walter walked deeper through the cavern, they became more and more weary. They had gone too long without seeing a hobbe.

Maybe they ran away, mused Cassie as they walked passed a large group of barrels.

Then, without warning, the barrels exploded and out jumped a number of Hobbes ready to ambush the two unexpecting warriors.

'Oh, bloody hell! Almost gave me a heart attack! Oh, you'll pay for that, you sods!' exclaimed an angry Walter as Cassie knocked one to the ground before running it through with her sword.

'And that, Cassie, proves that ambushes and the element of surprise don't matter when you've got talent.' said Walter.

'But it can help,' said Cassie.

'Yeah, it can help,' agreed Walter, heading back through the dimly lit tunnels.

The two of them continued to walk in silence, being cautious of their surroundings, but they came across no more Hobbes, until they reached a large opening.

'I wondered why none of the buggers had charged at us for a while.' said Walter, glaring across a canyon at the Hobbes standing on the opposite side, guns at the ready. 'They've been waiting to pick us off from a distance. Surprisingly clever.'

'Actually, it's stupid,' disagreed Cassie, surprising Walter.

'And why is their plan stupid?'

'Watch,' said Cassie, drawing her rifle and shotting all the barrels of explosives, killing every hobbe instantly.

'Ha! You little bastards weren't expecting that, were you? You've been outfoxed and outhobbed!' yelled Walter, before adding approvingly to Cassie, 'How very perceptive of you.'

'Thanks.'

Together they continued down the path and they soon came to some woodwork, which greatly amused Walter.

'Well, look at that, they've built themselves a little castle. Isn't that adorable?'

'If you say so,' muttered Cassie. It did not look like a castle to her and she should know. After all, she did grow up in one, but then, didn't people say a man's home is his castle? Maybe it was the same with Hobbes.

Together Walter, Cassie and Lightning continued on their way until they came to a tunnel entrance that was barricaded with hobbe magic. On the other side of the see-through, magic barricade stood three laughing Hobbes. One was a magician while the other two were soldiers.

'Little sods blocking our way,' grumbled Walter. 'You'll have to get behind it somehow. Cave like this, there had to be some other way of getting there.'

'If there is another way, Lightning and I will find it!' Cassie said confidently, before walking off with Lightning, down another passage. As she was leaving, she could hear Walter talking to the laughing Hobbes.

'Think you're so smart, standing behind your fancy magic don't you? Yeah, that's right, I'm talking to you!' Walter told them.

Shaking her head, Cassie and Lightning followed a different tunnel until they came to a small lake. At first, Cassie just stood there looking across the lake to see if there was an entrance on the opposite side. In the end, she slowly walked into the water and began to swim to the opposite bank. She heard Lightning dive in after her.

Once she reached the opposite shore, she quietly snuck up on the magician before grabbing his shoulders and sticking her sword through his heart. Due to her sudden appearance the other two Hobbes just stood there blinking stupidly, giving Cassie time to slit one of the Hobbes throats while Walter shot the other.

'Impressive,' said Walter as they continued on their way.

'I did learn from the best,' answered Cassie, making Walter chuckle.

'Do you know what I don't understand,' continued Walter, 'is that they're smart enough to use magic, but not smart enough to wear their pants the right way round. Try explaining that.'

'I can...they are Hobbes. That explains everything.'

'Oh very funny, Cassie,' laughed Walter, before looking amazed as they were heading towards some ancient ruins. 'Now this...this I wasn't expecting. There must have been a whole city down here once. You don't think the Hobbes built it, do you?'

'What?' laughed Cassie, trying to imagine Hobbes building the ruins in front of them.

'Nah, not with those stubby fingers,' continued Walter. 'Have you noticed how quiet it all is here?'

'Besides you? Then yes,' answered Cassie carelessly, entering a large arena. 'Why?'

'It's almost like...'

At that moment three magic Hobbes appeared in the middle of the ring through what looked like a cullis gate, while more Hobbes appeared on top of the wall beating drums while others bowed.

'...Yep, almost like that was going to happen,' sighed Walter.

Cassie groaned and watched as the three magicians summoned skeleton Hobbes to destroy them, then putting up a magical barrier to protect themselves.

After turning many skeleton Hobbes into dust, Cassie managed to attack the magician Hobbes as they dropped the magic barrier momentarily to summon more of their friends. It was in the short moment that Cassie ran towards them, impaling one of them on her sword while shotting another one in the forehead. Walter took care of the third. It was at that moment that the remaining skeletons turned to dust. None of the other Hobbes were game enough to come near them after that. Both of them turned, in unison, to continue on their way but found they way blocked by another magic hobbe, who that put a magic barrier across the exit.

'Hmm...I don't think you're going to find a way round this time,' said Walter, looking at the little hobbe. 'But I've got some magic of my own.'

'Really?' laughed Cassie.

'Watch and learn,' Walter smiled at Cassie, before turning to face the hobbe. He was silent for a moment, looking thoughtful before he jumped into a crouched position and yell, 'Boo!'

To Cassie's surprise, the hobbe jumped back away from Walter and the barrier disappeared. The hobbe just stood there panting with fright before grabbing chest and fall down dead.

Maybe he was an old hobbe and Walter just gave him a heart attack, thought Cassie.

'Oh,' said a shocked Walter. 'It worked. Right, let's get out of here, shall we?'

'Sounds like a plan to me,' said an equally shocked Cassie, leading the way out of the cavern.

Once outside the cavern, Cassie saw that they had enter some sort of forest with trees dating back thousands of years and fog that gave the place a sense of mystery and danger. Cassie was betting on the latter of the two was what she was going to find.

'Ahh!' said Walter, walking confidently forward along the forest path. 'You can almost smell the sunlight. Isn't it wonderful? The damp, muggy, soggy sunlight. This is Mourningwood all right. I hope the people we're looking for are still alive.'

'Still - still alive?' repeated Cassie. 'I thought you said that there was a village of sorts in this region! Wouldn't that village be well protected from hollow men?'

'There is, but it's not protected.' answered Walter. 'Besides, the men we are after aren't at the village, and come nightfall, it's one of the most dangerous places in Albion.'

'Great,' muttered Cassie. Night was quickly approaching.

They walked in silence for a while before Walter complained, 'I don't know about dangerous, but I'm starting to get a rash. Bloody swamp. Anyway,' he continued conversationally, 'we made a good team back in that cave, didn't we?'

'That we did,' agreed Cassie.

'It's been a while since I got stuck into a real fight. It was just like fighting by your mother's side. I'd forgotten what it was like, standing next to a Hero. Ah, that must be the place up ahead,' he added as they set sights on a ruined fortress up ahead. 'What I wouldn't give for a bowl of hot soup and a hot bath.'

'Who's the princess here? You or me?' laughed Cassie.

'Oh, be quiet,' chuckled Walter, coming to a halt outside the fortress. A solider stood on the keep above, gun aimed directly at them.

'Cease your movement! Be you men, or be you hollow men?' he demanded.

'Have you gone daft, boy?' demanded Walter. 'Open up the doors!'

'Walter? Is that you?' asked the surprised soldier.

'The very same. Now, are you going to let us in or what?'

'Right, yes, of course! Open the gate! Tell Major Swift: Walter's here!'

Shaking his head, Walter motioned for Cassie follow him and together they walked into the run-down fortress, toward two men that were not wearing the soldier's uniform and Cassie knew immediately that they were a major and a captain.

'There he is,' smiled Walter, taking the hand of the older of the two, the major. 'The one and only; Major Swift.'

'Walter! What the blazes are you doing here?' laughed Swift.

'We came looking for you,' answered Walter. 'I have a proposition.'

'You came all this way to proposition us?' said the captain, the younger of the two, in disbelief. 'And I thought you were her to save us from the legions of the damned.'

'Ben Finn! It's good to see you,' said Walter. 'I take it the legends about this place are true then.'

'I'd say,' said Swift, leading them over to a small graveyard. 'You've never seen so many hollow men in one place. We've been stationed here for weeks, trying to eradicate them. Manly it's us getting eradicated. We lost some good men last night, including Lieutenant Simmons here,' he added, pointing to a grave. 'And the buggers'll be back tonight.'

'Logan just loves to send you on the best assignments, doesn't he?' Walter asked, with a quick sideways glance at Cassie. 'That's part of what I wanted to talk to you about.

'Is this...?' asked Swift, frowning at Cassie.

'The princess, yes, I'll explain...but just treat her like any other pair of hands for now.'

'Fair enough,' Swift said turning to Cassie. 'Captain Finn will show you to the mortar. We could use a body up there.'

'Come on then, Princess,' said Ben, leading the way. He looked like he was only a few years older than her. 'I'll introduce you to Private Jammy, so called because he is the luckiest sod in the fort.'

'Right,' said Cassie. 'And it's just Cassie, Captain Finn. There is no need to call me "princess" or anything else formal.'

'In that case, you can just call me "Ben", Cassie.' Ben said cheerfully, leading her up a flight of steps to the top wall. 'I don't suppose you've ever used a mortar before?'

'How'd you guess?'

'Gut feeling,' laughed Ben. 'There's nothing to it,' he added, talking about the mortar they were now standing beside. Next to the mortar was a soldier that had that many cuts and bruises that they all blended together. Cassie would not even get started on his bandages. 'There's always a slight chance of maiming, of course, but I'm sure you'll pick it up,' continued Ben. 'First, I'd like you to meet Private Jammy,' he said, indicating to the mummy soldier. 'He'll be your loader.'

'Pleasure to meet cha.' said Jammy. 'It's true what they say about me you know. Jammiest soldier in Albion. Seven hundred and twenty-four wounds and still standing.'

Cassie felt her jaw drop and looked over at Ben.

'Don't worry, you'll get use to him,' chuckled Ben at her facial features. 'After a while he's hardly revolting at all. Right, Jammy. It's time to show her the ropes.'

'Yes, Sir!' said Jammy. 'Right then, my life's going to be in your hands, so let's make sure you know what you are doing, okay?'

Cassie nodded.

'Right, go on and grab the mortar, so we can do some practice shots.'

'Sure thing,' Cassie said nervously, taking hold of it.

'Okay, 'let's see what you've got.' said Jammy. 'See that scarecrow over there?'

'Yeah.'

'Blow it up.'

'Okay,' said Cassie, trying to get a feel of the mortar. Her first shot missed the scarecrow by a mile, but her second shot hit the target straight on as was her second.

'Boosh!' laughed Jammy. 'Goodbye Mr Scarecrow! That was bloody brilliant!'

'All right, Jammy!' laughed Ben. 'Don't get too excited. You know what happens when you do. Let's just take care of the last one.'

'Just one left,' said Jammy as Cassie lined it up. Just as Cassie was about to fire, Jammy said, 'Hang on, I don't remember setting this one up.'

Ben and Cassie both turned and looked at him, before turning and looking at the scarecrow, which had started to move. Next thing they knew, hollow men with appearing out of the ground around it.

'They're here! Start firing!' order Ben, before alerting the other soldiers, Swift and Walter.

Jammy and Cassie did not hesitate. She fire shot after shot, always getting her target, and Jammy re-loaded the mortar nearly immediately after the first load was shot. Then before their very eyes, they disappeared.

'Where did they go?' Cassie whispered to Jammy.

'I don't...'

'They're at the rear gate!' yelled Swift to his soldiers. 'Take positions!'

Jammy quickly ran down the stairs, yelling for Cassie to follow him, but she just jumped off the wall instead and hurried over to Walter, Ben and Swift, drawing her weapon as she went.

'All guns on the gate! We can't let them through!' ordered Ben.

Two men were standing at the gate, throwing all their weight against the wood to try to stop the hollow men entering, but it was all in vain. The hollow men succeeded in knocking the door down, killing the two soldiers as the logs from the gate crashed on top of them.

Immediately, the soldiers attacked along with Walter, Ben, Swift and Cassie. With the soldiers shooting and sword fighting, they were able to hold the hollow men back, and when Cassie used her ice storm gauntlets, the hollow men began to drop like flies. Sadly, during the battle against the hollow men legion, Private Jammy's luck ran out and then...it was all over.

'Victory!' yelled Swift. 'All hail the princess! Now, who's for a pint?'

Sadly, their victory did not last long, for at that moment, a blue wisp went flying through the air and straight into Lieutenant Simmons grave.

'That can't be good,' muttered Ben, and he was right.

'Lieutenant Simmons!' ordered Swift as the corpse came out of the ground bearing to huge swords. Casse felt small compared to Simmons. 'I specifically instruct you to remain buried!'

The corpse ignored him.

'Doesn't anyone follow orders anymore?' demanded Ben.

'I don't think orders count when they are dead,' Cassie said, before making an ice storm surround Simmons and the hollow men he had just summoned. She then dodged out of the way, as magic blades infused with lightning came flying at her. 'Somehow, I don't think this is an average hollow man we're dealing with.' she told Ben.

He grunted before also dodging an attack.

Cassie then quickly ran around Simmons before racing at his turning back and slicing him in half, before he exploded to dust.

'That was pretty damn impressive!' Ben told Cassie. 'So, your mother wasn't the last Hero of Albion after all.'

'Looks that way,' smiled Cassie as Swift and Walter came over to them.

'We did it!' exclaimed an ecstatic Swift.

'Let the poets tell our epic tale. The Swift Brigade fought against impossible odds. They won. The end.' said Ben, making them laugh. Once the laughter had ceased, Ben turned to Walter. 'Well, Sir Walter, you didn't do too bad...for an old man.'

'Neither did you...for a buffoon,' replied Walter, with a raised eyebrow before they both started laughing.

'Ahh. That was just like old times, Walter. Just like old times.' said Swift.

'So what do you say? Will you join us?' said Walter, becoming serious once more. 'With your help we can put a stop to Logan's madness, bring back the real Albion army.'

'I swore to serve my king to the death,' said Swift firmly. 'We all did. But this isn't the way it was meant to be. The old guard has been shoved aside, and these new soldiers Logan's been gathering...they don't care about this land or its people.'

'And I bet they get paid more,' grumbled Ben.

'Walter has absolute faith in you,' said Swift, turning to Cassie, 'and after seeing you in action, so do I. All I ask is that you make a soldier's oath.'

'And what oath is that?' Cassie asked.

'Let your armies protect the people instead of oppressing them. Bring honour back to this uniform...'

'And don't forget the pay rise,' added Ben.

'Shut up, Ben,' said Walter, while Cassie tried not to laugh.

'I promise,' said Cassie, 'to both the honour of the uniform, and a pay rise,' she added looking over at Ben, who grinned back at her.

'Then it's settled,' said Walter. 'We're heading back to Bowerstone now. There are some people there I'm hoping will join us. We'll send for you when we're ready.'

'Then I shall bid you good luck and farewell and all that,' said Swift.

Walter and Cassie nodded, and left the fortress.

Cassie had to admit that she was quite jumpy as they made their way through Mourningwood and she still could not understand why anyone would want to live there, especially when she saw the state of the tiny village.

'How can they stand living here, without any protection?' Cassie whispered to Walter as they passed through.

'Hollow men obviously don't come to this part of Mourningwood,' shrugged Walter. 'Besides, I'm sure these people are able to look after themselves when hollow men do attack.'

'Like the soldiers back at the fortress?' demanded Cassie.

Walter shrugged and continued to lead the way to Bowerstone.

**-THE HAPPENINGS-**

'We've descended into the chasms of the netherworld, stared death in the face and waded through things so foul I'd rather not think about them,' Walter said as they walked through a tunnel that led into Bowerstone Industrial. 'But this is where it gets really ugly. And buried somewhere beneath it all are the people Logan has left behind.'

Cassie did not say anything; instead, she followed him silently, listening to what the few people on the street were saying to one another. She was shocked to learn that Logan and Reaver had little kids working when they should have been outplaying and going to school. She knew that would have to change.

She anger though was soon forgotten as Walter led her towards a factory courtyard where a large and angry crowd had gathered. In the middle of the courtyard, on a raised platform, stood a bald man addressing the crowd, fuelling their anger.

'Reaver is exploiting us!' he yelled. 'We deserve fair pay! We demand better working conditions! We're workers, we're not slaves!'

Cassie heard someone bang metal and she looked up to the deck above and saw a well-dressed man in a tall top hat, whacking his cane against the railing, looking down at the man below. She could not make out his face properly. The bald man did not hear or get the message.

'Reaver treats us like animals!' he continued to yell. 'And we're not going to take it anymore...'

Down went the cane again.

'...there's only one thing for it. We have to stand up to Reaver!'

Cassie watched as the well-dressed man raised a pistol and shooting the man in the leg.

'But lying down is so much easier than standing up,' drawled the man, who Cassie took to be Reaver himself. 'My dear friends. In order to raise morale, I am offering prizes to the most deserving workers. The rules that will govern what I like to call the Reaver Team Spirit Award, are these: firstly, any worker that so much as murmurs another complaint will be shot. Secondly, any worker who takes more than a three-second break will be shot. Thirdly, any worker who breaks any other rules I have yet to formulate, will, yes, you guessed it, be shot.' As if to enforce his point, Reaver shot the man in the leg again. 'You may return to work now. As you know, I am a generous man, and likely to start handing out prizes right away. So go on. Shoo! Be off with you! Chop chop.'

'That's why we are here,' Walter told Cassie quietly as the crowd began to disappear, but Reaver remained on the balcony staring out across the polluted river. 'That's why Albion needs you. Your brother must have been out of his mind when he handed control of Industrial to Reaver.'

'Uh huh,' said Cassie, not taking her eyes off Reaver's figure. 'Walter, have I met Reaver before?'

'No. For some reason, Logan made sure that you were not around when he came to the castle,' answered Walter. 'Why do you ask?'

'It's just - his body language and voice seem so familiar to me.'

'I think he is just one of those people those voice reminds everyone of someone else.'

'So he reminds you of someone too?'

'Yes. River sometimes sounded like him.'

'My father sounded like that cold-hearted creature?' said a shocked Cassie.

'Remember, your father was a thief whose soul didn't hold a glimmer of light until he met your mother,' Walter said gently. 'Anyway, we should go. It's time you met the Bowerstone Resistance.' he added, dragging her gently away.

Cassie barely noticed Walter leading her to the entrance of the Bowerstone sewers, for her mind was on Reaver's voice. Maybe his voice really did remind her of her father. She had only been young - around seven years of age - when he father died, and as such, could not remember much about him. She did not even have a photo to look at due to her brother.

'Right, this should be the place.' Walter said, interrupting Cassie's thoughts as they stopped just outside the sewers. 'Somewhere beyond this door is the base of the Bowerstone Resistance. Ready when you are.'

'Let's just get it over and done with,' muttered Cassie, opening the door, walking inside, and gagging at the stench. She wondered if the resistances noses still worked living in that stench.

'I really love how much time we're spending in caves and sewers these days,' muttered Walter as they walked through the sewer. 'I should warn you, I don't know what kind of reception we'll get, I know their leader well enough, but it was never safe for me to come down and meet the rest of them. And they're not exactly the most trusting of people.'

'So they're a bit like Sabine?' asked Cassie.

'They're worst than Sabine,' corrected Walter.

'Joy,' muttered Cassie, walking through the entrance to the quarters with Walter.

'Hello?' Walter called out. 'Hello? Maybe we've got the wrong place.' he said thoughtfully, upon receiving no answer. 'Let's, you know, get out and -'

'Don't move!' ordered a tall man, jumping out from behind a barrel, pistol aimed at the two of them. Moments later, two other men joined him.

Automatically Cassie drew and raised her sword, but Walter gently touched her shoulder and shook his head. Cassie re-sheltered her sword, but kept her hand on the handle.

'Who are you and what are you doing here?' ordered the first man.

'I'm Walter and this is - well, that really doesn't matter right now.' said Walter. 'We're here to speak with Page.'

'I say we shoot them!' said another man.

'Listen! We're on your side! Just hear us out!' Walter said urgently.

'We don't make deals with spies. Shoot.' said the first man.

'Wait!' cried Walter.

'Put your weapons down!' ordered a new voice. A dark skinned woman walked into sight not looking very happy. 'I thought I gave the orders round here, Kidd.' she said to the first man.

'Sorry, Page. Got a bit carried away,' apologised Kidd.

'Walter, glad you're all right,' said Page.

'And I'm glad you came in when you did,' replied Walter.

'I wasn't exactly expecting you,' said Page. 'Let's talk somewhere a bit more private,' she added, leading them to a large room with a map of Albion and Aurora in the middle.

'I had this whole plan, you see,' Walter told Page along the way, 'but I - well, we ended up leaving the castle earlier than I thought.'

'I heard. Pity. Your messages were always useful.' sighed Page.

'I can offer you something better.' said Walter as they entered the room. 'Page, I'd like you to meet -'

'I know who she is.' Page interrupted coldly. 'I thought you'd know better than to bring the princess here.'

'She's not just the princess. She's a Hero.'

'Great. Give her a medal!' Page said sarcastically, making Cassie glare.

'No, no. I mean she's a "Hero". Like her mother!'

'Really?' said a taken back Page, though she soon got over her shock. 'It doesn't change anything. Your brother is the reason we live underground.' Page told Cassie coldly, as though it was her fault. 'He's the reason we fight. How do we know she is any better?' Page demanded to Walter.

'Well, let her prove it,' Walter replied reasonably.

'It's not just me she needs to convince,' argued Page. 'The people of this city need someone they can believe in. If she can proved to them that they should follow her - then I will talk with you. For now I have work to do!' she said, before walking away.

Cassie glared after her.

'Looks like you have work to do too,' said Walter. 'You have a whole city to inspire.'

'Hmm,' groaned Cassie, before returning to the Sanctuary.

'It would seem your heroism had to be put to the test once again, madam.' Jasper said as a greeting. 'There appear to be numerous opportunities available,' he added, motioning to the map.

Sighing, Cassie took note of two quests and went back to Bowerstone Industrial.

Her first quest was in Bowerstone, so she casually made her way there, stopping every now and then to give some money to the beggars she passed. It was then that she found her. There she was, small, ragged, under feed and over worked, surrounded by the kids she worked with. Each child was trying to encourage the six year old girl to get back to her feet and work, but the girl had no strength. Next minute, one of the working supervisors came out. A cold and heartless woman.

'What do you brats think you are doing out here?' she demanded. 'Get back to work!' The kids all hurried away, except for the little girl. 'That includes you too, Gail!'

'Please, ma'am, I can't -' whispered the little girl before the supervisor interrupted her.

'Can't? Can't! Don't tell me what you can't do!' she screeched at the helpless child. 'Get back in there and work; otherwise there will be no food for you again today!'

'But ma'am,' pleaded Gail.

'I said get inside!' The woman yelled, grabbing the child roughly by the neck and flinging her inside. Cassie had seen enough.

'OI!' she yelled, storming up to the supervisor.

'What do you want?' The woman demanded coldly.

'For you to leave that child alone!' snapped Cassie. She was not about to be bullied. 'Can't you see that she's not well? And what kind of person makes a hungry child work for food!'

'I do. She eats my food and stays at my house, so I decide what she does.'

'Where are her parents?'

'Dead,' the woman replied with an uncaring shrug. 'Leaving that brat and a huge debt behind. As a result, this child is not leaving here until she joins her parents or has paid off the debt. Whichever comes first.'

Cassie could not believe her ears. She had never met anyone so unpleasant.

'How much debt?' Cassie asked after a moment.

'Five hundred gold.'

Cassie went to her bag, withdrew a bag of money, and quickly counted it.

'Tell you what. Here's a thousand gold.' said Cassie. 'In exchange, I will adopt Gail and you will never have to worry about her again.'

Cassie could see the greed in the woman's eyes, before she snatched the money out of Cassie's hands and pushed Gail towards her.

'Deal. It was a pleasure doing business with you, though I feel as though I got the better end of the deal.' smirked the woman.

'I wouldn't be too sure about that,' Cassie said coldly, gently picking up Gail and taking her to the Sanctuary.

'Ah, hello, Madam.' greeted Jasper. 'I was not expecting to see you so - is that a child in your arms?'

'Yes, please fetch some food and healing potions please, Jasper. And a blanket as well.'

'Very well, madam.' said Jasper hurrying off, while Cassie gently put the child on a nearby couch. Gail just laid there, staring up at Cassie's face.

Moments later, Jasper returned with everything.

'Thanks Jasper,' said Cassie, taking the blanket off him and putting it over Gail.

'Not at all, madam,' said Jasper, waving the gratitude aside. 'May I inquire as to why the child is here?'

'Jasper, this is my daughter Gail,' smiled Cassie. 'Gail, this is one of my dear friends, Jasper.' she added to the nervous child.

'Wh-why did you do it?' stammered Gail. 'And why are you helping me?'

'I couldn't just walk away after seeing what that lady did to you,' Cassie said gently, helping Gail take some healing potion. 'Besides, if you decide you don't want to have me as a mother or anything, I'll help you find some other parents or guardians.'

Gail looked deeply into Cassie's eyes before saying, 'I want to stay with you. You're nice!'

'Then stay with me you shall,' smiled Cassie. 'But you should know that I'm likely to disappear for long periods of time. So will you be alright with Jasper?'

Gail nodded.

'Okay. Now why don't you make a start on some of this wonderful food Jasper has brought you?'

The next day, Cassie said bye to Gail - who was looking much better - and headed off to her first quest in Bowerstone. According to the map, three mages require a hero to enter the Baron's realm and save the princess, whatever that meant.

Turned out that the three mages had a magic orb that could shrink whoever held it, in this case Cassie was the one who had to shrink before she was placed on a table that contained the terrain of the game she had to participate in and that's when the fun began...for the mages anyway.

During this time, Cassie had to make her way through the terrain talking to different cardboard cut outs of people, fight wolves, and slaughter the Hollow Men, before coming to her favourite part to do with chickens. Cassie knew that she would never be able to look at a chicken the same way ever again, nor would she be able to eat one ever again. During this part of the game, Cassie had to watch as one of the mages turned the chickens into Demon Chickens that breathed fire.

After fighting off the flock of Demon Chickens, she then had to fight off some Hobbes that were the baron's elite guards. Cassie did not think that they were very elite at all. After defeating all the Hobbes, Cassie was able to attack the baron - who died after one hit - before knocking the cut out of the princess to the ground as the mages tried to get her to kiss the princess.

Overall, the game was an absolute bore to Cassie, not that the mages agreed with her. They had found it most exciting and said that they planned to continue with their game next week, and probably would have if Cassie had remembered to give their magical orb back to them before them before she left the house, fully grown and back to her original height.

Cassie left Bowerstone Market and headed back to Bowerstone Industrial where she was heading off to rescue a captive off someone call Nigel Ferret and his gang. Apparently it was someone's fiancé.

Eventually, Cassie arrived at the run down orphanage and found four people standing outside it.

'I'm very sorry, but I'm afraid you'll have to go somewhere else tonight,' said the woman apologetically.

'Somewhere else?' repeated one of the men standing before her. 'And where would that be, exactly? Every other place been closed down, and I'll freeze to death on the streets. And that's if Logan's goons don't bash my skull in first.'

'You think you're the only one who has problems?' demanded the woman coldly, before taking a gentler tone. 'I'm sorry. I'm just...look, I wish I could help you, but I can't.'

As the two men and woman walked off angrily, Cassie walked forward and the woman in charge's face fell as she caught sight on her.

'I hope you're not looking for somewhere to stay because this place is about to close for good,' she said sadly.

'No, I'm actually here to help someone get their fiancé back from someone call Ferret,' said Cassie.

'You are? Oh that's wonderful!' exclaimed the woman. 'I'm the woman that needs the help. Ferret took my fiancé as a ransom until I could get the money he wanted. I tried to work up the courage to rescue him, but Ferret and his gang has everyone living in fear, including me. That's when I thought that if I had someone like you with me...you could go in there and show them what fear really is...though I don't know how you knew I needed help,' she added, suddenly suspicious.

'I'm Queen Amy's daughter,' Cassie said simply, which explained everything.

'Oh, it's nice to meet you, Princess Cassandra.' The woman said hurriedly as she did an awkward curtsey. 'I'm Linda.'

'It's just Cassie, Linda,' smiled Cassie. 'So, where is Ferret now, do you know?'

'Yes. Ferret demanded that I brought the ransom in a weeks' time, but I'll bring him something better,' she grinned before leading the way out of the orphanage grounds, a cross the street and up the front steps of a house.

That's convenient, thought Cassie as Linda knocked on the front door.

Moments later, the peek hole of the door opened and oily voice said, 'Linda. You just cost me a bit of gold, luv. I bet old Harry it'd take you the full week to get the money. You're an industrious one, ain't cha?'

'Just open the bloody door, Keith.' said an impatient Linda. 'Let's have done with this.'

Slowly the door opened and Linda and Cassie walked inside an ancient looking room with a mercenary type figure standing beside the door, who Cassie took to be Keith.

'Right, Mr Ferret's down those stairs,' said Keith, before he caught sight of Cassie. 'Whoa, hang on, who's your friend?' he demanded.

'In your parlance, she's the "bagman".' Linda lied smoothly. 'And that gold doesn't leave her hands until my fiancé's walked out of your fetid little den.'

'All right, no need to get all uppity,' said Keith. 'You just watch yourself around Mr Ferret or things'll get unfriendly fast.'

'Whatever,' mutter Linda, leading the way down the stairs Keith had mentioned to before.

Once down the stairs the two women came to a large room where a number of men sat at different tables drinking and playing cards. At the far end of the room, standing in a doorway was a porky little man with two guards standing either side of the doorframe.

'Ah, Linda,' drawled the porky man as they approached. 'I cannot tell you how elated I am to have this unfortunate situation brought to a satisfying resolution. Your associate can dispense with her burden by piling the funds upon a table.'

'There's no gold, Ferret.' Linda said happily. 'Now you cough up my fiancé from whatever filthy corner you're keeping him in, or my "associate" is going to start collecting heads and piling them upon a table.' To empathise her point, I drew my sword and smiled a charming princess smile.

'My initial judgement of your character was clearly misguided,' said a calm Ferret. 'You posses some heart after all. Lads, tear it out,' he ordered before leaving the room, closing, and locking the door behind him.

Cassie just shook her head and sighed as the members of his gang, drew their swords and guns and advanced upon them like wolves seeking their prey. Fifteen minutes later, Cassie had disposed of all of Ferret's men, though she did not pile any heads upon a table. That was gross.

'Your men are dead, Ferret!' Linda yelled through the locked door Ferret was hiding behind. 'Unless you want to join them, let us in!'

'It's open!' came Ferret's panicked voice.

Frowning, Linda tried the door and it was indeed unlocked.

'I could have sworn he locked it,' muttered Linda, before shrugging and walking into the next room where Ferret was found sitting on an old wooden chair. Linda walked confidently over to him, before drawing a pistol and aiming it at his head. Ferret paled. 'You brought this on yourself, Ferret. This didn't have to happen.'

'It still doesn't!' Ferret said quickly. 'We merely got off on the wrong foot. I'm no threat to you without my men, and I'm only too happy to return your fiancé. I can be quite accommodating.'

'Get on with it then!'

'Well, the thing is, he's actually not on the premises, exactly, at the present time.' admitted Ferret. 'He's incarcerated within a nearby...facility, shall we say. That access hatch will provide you with...well, access.' He motioned to the end of the room where there was quite a fall, which lead into the sewers.

'The sewer?' exclaimed Linda. 'You fellows are a sophisticated lot. Please, go and get him,' she added to Cassie. 'I'll keep an eye of Ferret.'

'No problem,' said Cassie. She was use to the sewers now.

Sighing, she walked over to the access hatch and looked down, before telling Lightning to stay with Linda. She then dived into the water below. As she came back up, she nearly went back under with shock. Slowly she swarm towards the shore, not taking her eyes off the man in front of her. She just had to be dreaming.

'Ell-Elliot?' breathed Cassie as she climbed out of the water. She was definitely dreaming. Logan had ordered him to executed.

'Cass!' exclaimed Elliot, climbing to his feet before embracing her tightly as she began to sob into his shoulder.

'I can't believe it! It's you! It's really you!' sobbed a happy, yet confused Cassie. 'But how? That day in the castle...I...'

'I know,' Elliot said gently. 'As I was led out of the throne room...I had never been so scared in my life, though I was grateful that you chose me instead of those people.'

'But, how can you still be alive?'

'The guards led me down to the dungeons, to wait until further orders from Logan.' explained Elliot. 'I sat in the darkness for what seemed like hours, waiting for them to lead me out to the firing squad. That night, when the guards came and got me, they lead me back to the throne room, where Logan sat waiting, looking thoughtful. He motioned for the guards to leave and for me to come closer. I did as he said, wondering if it was a trap, but I was unprepared for what he asked me.'

'And what was that?'

'If I really did love and care for you.'

'What?'

'Yeah, that's what he asked. When I replied saying that I did, he then said, "and my sister is deeply in love with you. It is for that reason that you will not be put to death, but in return, you must leave the castle and start yourself a new life and let my sister go on with hers." He then added something under his breath which sounded as though he was letting me go also because I hadn't really done anything wrong.'

'Logan, let you go. He spared you?' gasped Cassie.

Elliot nodded.

'Well, that doesn't matter now. What matters is the fact that you are alive,' smiled a wet faced Cassie. 'Oh, how much I have missed you.'

'I've missed you too! I never thought I'd see you again after that day in the throne room. It was the most horrific day of my life.'

'Today's not going to be much better if we don't get you out of here,' said Cassie as she heard the sound of something that sounded like a Hobbes crackle.

Cassie took Elliot's hand and together they walked through the sewers talking quietly.

'What are you doing here anyway?' asked Elliot. 'I thought you'd be in the castle, with your brother.'

'I haven't been anywhere near the castle since that afternoon,' said Cassie. 'Ever since I left, I've been travelling all over Albion with Walter.'

'Really?' said an interested Elliot.

'Really,' said Cassie. 'You should have seen the places I have been to Elliot. I've been to Mispeak Valley, Brightwall, Bowerstone and Mourningwood...'

'You've been to Mourning - watch out,' yelled Elliot, pulling Cassie out of the way of a colony of bats came flying at them.

'Argh, I hate bats,' sighed Cassie, before shooting an ice storm at them.

'Wow...you were amazing,' said an impressed Elliot. 'I've never seen anything like that! It was like seeing something out of,' he paused before continuing slowly as realisation began to hit him, 'Walter's stories, about your mother...you're a Hero!' he said, looking Cassie up and down, daring to believe his eyes. So much for protecting her. She'd be more likely to protect him.

'It's not all it's cracked up to be, believe me,' smiled Cassie.

'Hmm, things are becoming clearer to me now. When Logan started to behave so appallingly, I told myself that he wanted to prove his strength by seeing off a few agitators, but it's more insidious than that. Taking lives is brutal, but to take away hope, to force an entire kingdom to live in fear...that's true tyranny.'

'And it's going to take more than a Hero to stop him,' said Cassie. 'It's going to take a full scale revolution. That is the reason I've been travelling Albion with Walter. I've been collecting allies to help bring Logan down, but I've also been making friends too. Not to mention the weird quests I've been going on.'

'When we're out of here, you will have to tell me all about them.'

'I will,' promised Cassie as she drew her sword and going into combat with Hobbes.

Once she had finished, Cassie took Elliot by the hand again and together they walked on. After a while, Cassie noticed that the structure had become man made instead of being natural cave.

'You should almost be back to Linda,' sighed Cassie, suddenly remembering the reason why she had found Elliot. She had found him because of his fiancé.

'Oh, bloody hell, Linda,' groaned Elliot, not sounding so keen to get back. 'What am I going to say to her?'

Cassie did not ask what he meant because they were just outside the exit, though as she went to open the door, Elliot pulled her back.

'Wait. Linda is the most - well, the second most amazing woman I have ever met.' said an awkward Elliot. Cassie remained silent, wondering where he was going with all this. Why couldn't he just come out and say that he did not love her anymore? 'She started that shelter from nothing, and she keeps it going despite Ferret and Reaver. Working with her felt...right, after all those years in the castle doing nothing. Then somehow, it became more than working. I felt something I hadn't since you. And know your back. Argh, this is maddening,' he exclaimed suddenly. 'Here I am, pouring my heart out and you haven't said anything. Do you want to give me a consoling hug and say, "Do the honourable thing"? - or grab me and kiss me and tell me to come back? Cass, are you all right?' he added when he noticed the tears that were slowly flowing down her face.

'I'm better than all right.' laughed Cassie, though it was a bit shaky due to her tears. 'When I found out that you had a fiancé, I was heartbroken, thinking that you no longer loved me, but now I know it is not so. I love you too Elliot, and my heart could not bear to lose you again!'

Elliot's face broke out into a smile and he slowly brought Cassie's lips to his own and kissed her, more passionately than he ever did before. As Cassie stood there in Elliot's arms, everything felt as though nothing had changed. It felt the same as it did when he use to sneak up to her room during the night - the only time they could be alone without having to worry about Logan, since Jasper would never tell on them.

'Listen,' said Elliot as they reluctantly pulled apart. 'I need time to break it to Linda. Please, say nothing now, but find me at the shelter in a few days, and we will be together,' he promised.

'If that is your wish,' smiled Cassie, walking back to the door and opening. 'Where's Ferret and where's - Linda! Are you here?' called Cassie, walking into the room and noticing that something was not right.

'Linda!' exclaimed Elliot, noticing her lying on the floor unconscious, as he hurried over to her. Cassie quickly joined him.

'Elliot,' groaned Linda as she came to. 'Ow, my head,' she added rubbing the back of her head. 'That weasel Ferret must have struck me when my back was turned.'

Cassie looked away and shook her head. Why did she turn her back on him in the first place?

'Oh darling, thank goodness you're all right,' said Linda, embracing Elliot, while Cassie stared emotionlessly down at them. 'You've saved the love of my life,' she added, looking up at Cassie. 'I'm forever in your debt. Thank you for everything, your highness.'

Cassie did something she hoped was a smile.

'Well, I've got to go,' said Cassie. 'There's a certain play that I've been invited to.' She looked quickly at Elliot, winked and headed for the door.

'I was so worried about you,' Linda told Elliot.

'I'm here now,' replied Elliot.

'I love you,' said Linda, and Cassie could here that she meant it in her voice, compared to Elliot who did not sound that way. Instead, he had his eyes fixed on Cassie's retreating back.

**-THE HAPPENINGS-**

As Cassie had told Elliot and Linda, she went to Brightwood to see Pinch and Lambert's tragedy and comedy combined play.

Once at Brightwall, Cassie followed the crowd up to the Academy where the play was going to be held outside. Once outside the Academy, she saw that may people had turned up and she soon found Samuel already seated.

'Hi Samuel,' said Cassie, taking the seat next to him.

'Well, stamp my renewal book, my princess. How good it is to see you again!' exclaimed Samuel. 'Though I have to admit, I'm a little surprised to see you here.'

'Well, after I went through all the trouble to find the play for them, I might as well come and see how it came together,' shrugged Cassie.

'That's not what I meant.' admitted Samuel.

'What do you mean?' asked Cassie.

'Well, from what Walter told me, you were currently on the run, as such, from your brother, right?'

'One could say that,' said Cassie, wondering where he was going with this.

'Yet you appear in the same region as him at the same place,' concluded Samuel.

'What, Logan's here?' Cassie exclaimed, behind hiding her face in the shadows of her hat as many people turned to look at her.

'Oh, you didn't know? You didn't see him? Well, he's over there,' said Samuel, motioning to a raised platform where Logan sat, looking as though he'd rather be doing other things, next to a hooded figure.

Before Cassie could do anything else Lambert and Pinch appeared and introduced their play, before it finally started. Cassie watched the first few minutes of it, before turning to watch her brother, who was far more interesting to watch. Cassie noticed that Logan didn't know what to make of the play for he was wearing the same expression that she probably wore as she watched the beginning. During the play, Cassie noticed that Logan looked like he was about to fall asleep and eventually he really did, only to be gently woken by the hooded figure sitting next to him near the end of the play. It was then that Cassie turned her attention back to the play in time to hear Lambert say, 'Hark! Bear witness to the tragic futility that is man. Oh how it doth sear my senses to see paradise and yet to be barred.'

'That reminds me of a great joke,' chuckled Pinch. 'A guard, a monk, and a chicken walked into a bar. Unfortunately, the bartender had had a mild heart attack that morning, so none of them get served.'

'And yet what purpose doth heartache serve, when the infinite dark blanket that is death falls softly upon our still beating corpse?' asked Lambert.

'That reminds me of another one!' said Pinch. 'A corpse walks into a bar and says, "Can I have a lemonade?" "Certainly," replies the Bartender. "I've never seen a stiff drink.".'

'And so endeth our happy sad play, which reminds us we are made of nothing but clay.' concluded Lambert. 'There's time only for our fool to say...'

'Great big giant bosoms!' exclaimed a joyful Pinch.

'I wasted my time looking for that,' Cassie muttered to a confused Samuel. 'No wonder Morley wanted his lost play lost.'

'Hmm, I'd have to say that was definitely...different,' agreed Samuel. 'And by the looks of your brother's face, I'd say he would agree.'

'What's he doing here anyway?' asked Cassie as the crowd began to leave.

'Logan and that hooded man come to see Pinch and Lambert's plays nearly every year.' answered Samuel. 'In fact, I believe that the old Queen and King use to take you and Logan to see them too, when you were younger.'

'Really?'

Samuel nodded and went back into the academy, while Cassie took one look at her brother before hurrying out of the region before he found her.

**-THE HAPPENINGS-**

Three days later, Cassie returned to the orphanage in Bowerstone Industry and found Elliot waiting patiently outside. She hurried over to him.

'Elliot, how did it go?' asked Cassie as she embraced her lover.

'Well, I spoke to her and she said that she understood,' said Elliot. 'Which made it even harder. I wished she'd called me awful names and thrown me out.'

'Always simpler that way,' laughed Cassie. 'But she doesn't seem the sort to do that.'

'Indeed. She is a lovely person, and I'll always love her.' said Elliot. 'But not like I love you,' then before her eyes, Elliot sunk to one knee and held a small red box which he opened to reveal a beautiful golden ring. 'Princess Cassandra, will you marry me?' he asked.

'Yes,' laughed Cassie. 'Yes! Of course I will!' she said as Elliot but the ring on her finger, before picking her up and spinning her around.

'Just think, one day our children will ask "Daddy how did propose to Mummy?" - and I'll be able to tell them that I proposed to you outside the orphanage in Bowerstone Industrial, which was terrible romantic after we had spent months apart, only to find each other again.'

'Yes and speaking of children, I've got an adopted daughter, well, you've got one now too,' said Cassie.

'Seriously?' said Elliot. 'That's strange; I don't remember any children being adopted lately.'

'I didn't adopt her from the orphanage,' explained Cassie as they headed off to Bowerstone Market to find a home. As they went looking for a house, Cassie filled Elliot in about the terrible things that had happened to Gail.

'That poor child,' said Elliot. 'She deserves to have a mother like you.'

'Just as she deserves to have you as her father,' smiled Cassie.

An hour later, Elliot and Cassie had found a house and went out shopping for furniture, food and all the other necessary items for the house. By the end of the day, Elliot and Cassie had the house sort of to their likings and they then went to the Sanctuary to get Gail.

'Gail, Jasper, I'm back!' Cassie yelled out, while Elliot just looked around at the Sanctuary in awe.

'Ah, madam, welcome back. I hope your quests went well.' said Jasper as Gail ran to her new mother.

'You could say that,' smiled Cassie, showing Jasper her left hand and more importantly the ring that sat upon it.

'Congratulations, madam,' said a happy Jasper. 'I can't tell you how happy I am for you. Do I know your fiancé?'

'You can't have forgotten about me already, Jasper.' grinned Elliot, walking over to join them.

'Jumping hobbes! Elliot, how can this be?' said a surprised Jasper.

Cassie and Elliot quickly explained everything to him, before taking Gail to her new home where they spent the next day playing toys with her. However, Cassie, Elliot and Gail all snuck into the sewers that afternoon, before heading towards the Resistances quarters within. Gail was positioned on Elliot's hip with her arms around his neck and pressed against him.

'It stinks in here, Mummy!' she complained.

'I know, but it's only a little bit further.' Cassie said patiently, walking past the guard posts.

They were almost at Page's quarters, when they bumped into Major Swift.

'Ah, the rebel princess,' greeted Swift.

'Major Swift,' greeted Cassie. 'Where are you off to?'

'The castle to report to your brother, and to try to find out what I can about his troop movements while I'm there.'

'Well good luck,' said Cassie.

'Thanks Princess,' he said before continuing on his way.

'Whose Major Swift when he's at home?' asked Elliot.

'He's in charge of a legion,' said Cassie, before adding, 'And he's an old friend of Walter's.'

As they entered the room, Ben Finn's voice was the first voice that met Cassie's ears. He was trying to impress Page.

'I'm telling you, I downed three hollow men with one shot, its true!' argued Ben.

'I've never trusted a soldier in my life,' Page said coldly. 'I'm not going to start now.'

'Wh - will you tell her, Walter?' Ben said, turning to Walter for help.

'Hey, I'm not getting involved.' Walter said wisely.

Ben looked desperately around and his eyes landed on Cassie, with Elliot and Gail behind her.

'Look, look, there she is! Asked her yourself!' said Ben, pointing to Cassie.

'Oh, give it a rest,' groaned Page, turning to face Cassie.

'Fine.' pouted Ben. 'I'll just stand here quietly then, shall I?'

Page shook her head, and turned to Cassie.

'You know, for a princess, you're a pretty decent - who are they?' she added catching sight of Elliot and Gail.

'Balls,' muttered a disbelieving Walter, staring at the grinning Elliot. 'Elliot? B-but how? Logan ordered for you to be executed!'

'No, he didn't.' said Elliot. 'He spared my life, gave me a sack of gold and to go build a life for myself outside the castle.'

Walter continued to gasp at him and Page stared at him suspiciously. Clearly, she thought it was a trick since Logan could not possibly spare anyone. Ben, however, was as cheerful as ever.

'So, is this your boyfriend and little cousin?' He asked.

'No, Gail is my daughter, adopted daughter,' Cassie said quickly, noticing Walter's eyes widen dramatically. He then relaxed. 'An Elliot is more than a boyfriend,' she added, showing Walter her left hand.

'By the gods! You're engaged!' he exclaimed.

Cassie nodded.

'That's enough chit-chat,' interrupted Page. 'We have a big problem at the moment.'

'And what's that?' asked Elliot, putting Gail down so she could play with Lightning.

'Reaver,' answered Walter promptly.

'Uh huh...what about him?' asked Cassie. Did this have something to do with him being friendly with her brother?

'He's been bleeding the city dry for years now, but it's never been this bad.' explained Page. 'We decided it was time to hit back.'

'A small group of fighters managed to get into his mansion, but they never made it out,' said Walter.

'I believe they're alive.' Page said forcefully. 'You're going to help me find them.'

'Okay, do you have a plan to get in?' asked Cassie.

'Reaver hosts some sort of fancy secret society party every week.' said Page immediately. 'We don't know what does on, but we do know what the guests look like. It's the perfect chance to sneak in. Here, you'll have to wear this,' she added, handing Cassie a dress box. Inside was a woman's masquerade suit.

'Great. Where's my costume?' Ben asked eagerly.

Page just looked at him.

Ben's smile disappeared.

'What? I still can't come?' he said, sounding disappointed. 'Even after the three hollow men story? Honestly, this is as bad as the army!'

Page shook her head and rolled her eyes again.

'Now everyone out!' she ordered. 'I have a party to dress for.'

Elliot picked Gail up and left the room as Ben said innocently, 'I'll stay and make sure no one spies on you.'

Page glared at him.

'Everyone. Out.' she said clearly.

'You know, I'm starting to have serious doubts about our relationship,' Ben told her as Cassie pulled him out of the room, trying not to laugh.

'I'll see you at Reaver's mansion,' Page sighed to Cassie, before closing and locking the door behind them.

* * *

><p><strong>Azaelia Silmarwen facebook page:<strong> link on profile  
><strong>Written: <strong>14 December 2011

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT CLAIM OWNERSHIP OVER THE ORIGINAL COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL IN THIS STORY. THIS IS A NON-PROFIT FANDUB CREATED BY FANS, FOR FANS. NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED. FAIR USE ONLY.**


	8. Parties, Speeches and the Truth

**CHAPTER EIGHT: PARTIES, SPEECHES AND THE TRUTH**

At dusk that night, Cassie left Elliot and Gail - who were sitting in chair, by the fire, reading children's book - and went upstairs to get ready for Reaver's party. Upon opening the box Page had given her, Cassie pulled out her outfit and examined it. The dress was white, blue and gold with different frills, with a blue hat and a light baby pink mask that resembled a cat. She had given Cassie golden shoes too.

When Cassie was dressed, she went down stairs once more.

'Mummy, you look pretty! Hey Daddy, she looks pretty!' gasped Gail, catching sight of Cassie. Even though Elliot and Cassie were not married yet, Gail had taken it upon herself to call Elliot "Daddy", not that Elliot minded.

'I'd say that's an understatement,' muttered Elliot, ogling at Cassie.

'Thanks,' smiled Cassie. 'So you sure you are able to get dinner alright?'

'Cass, I might not be the best cook in Albion, but what I do cook is edible.' grinned Elliot reassuringly.

'Just making sure.' smiled Cassie. 'Right, I'm off. Not sure what time I'll be back though, but it will probably be late. Night sweetie, be good for Daddy.' she said, kissing Gail gently on the forehead, before kissing Elliot goodbye on the lips.

'I will, Mummy.' promised Gail.

With that, Cassie went to her mother's old Sanctuary to fast travel to Reaver's.

'There's a lady behind that mask, that's the only thing of which I can be certain,' greeted Jasper.

'Thanks Jasper,' smiled Cassie, going over to the map and fast travelling to Reaver's.

When she arrived, she saw Page waiting outside the front door for her.

'Hmm. That really does suit you.' said Page, catching sight of Cassie. 'Brings out the colour in your eyes.'

She was wearing a dark redy-pink dress with a high white wig and a mask that resembled a fox. She really did do a great job at picking out their costumes. After all, Page was cunning and intelligent like a fox while Cassie gave people the idea that she was a petty princess, when really she was a fearless warrior, just like a cat can come across all cute and cuddly before becoming a hunter.

'Shall we?' asked Page motioning to the front door.

'After you,' grinned Cassie, before following her to the door. Page just walked straight inside without knocking.

'Bit late, aren't cha?' said Reaver's door attendant rudely. 'You've missed half the rituals and all the drinking. All we've got left is fizzy pop.'

'We apologise,' said Page. Cassie thought it would be best if Page did most of the talking.

'Oh yeah? Well, just give me the password and we'll forget about it, all right?' he said.

'Err...the password?' repeated Page, glancing over at Cassie.

So much for this plan, thought Cassie, preparing herself unnoticeable for a fight.

'No, I'm just pulling your leg.' winked the door attendant. 'Come on in. Master Reaver'll be happy to have a few more conscious people around for the final ceremony.' he said, leading them up a flight of stairs and through the mansion. 'I wasn't kidding about the fizzy pop though. These lightweights drank the lot. There's probably some cooking sherry left in the kitchen if you're desperate.' he added to Cassie.

'No thank you,' she replied.

'No? Don't blame you.' continued the attendant. 'Never touched the stuff myself, except in the mornings. I can sort you out a nice orgy later on should the mood take you. What do you say?' he glanced at Cassie, and in replied she showed him her engagement ring while Page said, 'Just keep walking, you strangle little man.'

'Of course, of course,' he said. 'You'll have to pardon me, miss. I do have a habit of spouting the odd vulgarity. Master Reaver has often brought out his whip to rectify that very flaw in my character. It's just this way,' he added, motioning to a pair of doors ahead of us. 'Oh, you'll have such fun. Not "drinks and orgies" fun, you know, but it'll be a real laugh. I'm sure.'

Cassie hardly believed that for a moment.

'Now, there are some ground rules,' he continued. 'Master Reaver insists that nobody carries weapons into the ballroom. There have been some accidents.'

'I'm afraid I need to keep mine. I'm here to find some friends.' Page said firmly.

'Oh, you're the brave, noble rebels. Why didn't you say so? I'm an oppressed proletarian myself, you know. We're practically comrades.' he opened the door and motioned for them to continue to the next door, before closing it behind them.

Cassie and Page ender up in a ball room with a huge cage in the middle of the room with a man inside.

'There's one of my men!' exclaimed Page, hurrying over to the man in the cage. 'Kidd! Are you all right?'

Get out! Now!' Kidd told them urgently.

'Where are the others?' Page asked ignoring him.

'All dead,' replied Kidd sadly. 'Reaver knew you'd come. He's been waiting for you!'

Next minute the cage began to move upwards, startling all three of them; Lightning was with Gail and Elliot.

'I'll get him out,' said Cassie, grabbing hold of the cage and trying to pull herself up to free Kidd.

As she did so, Reaver's voice floated out across the room. Again, Cassie was left with the annoying thoughts of trying to figure out why he sounded so familiar. Maybe it was as Walter said; maybe he was reminding her of her father's voice.

'My, my, my.' chuckled Reaver. 'More busy little bees here to steal Reaver's honey. So industrious. So committed. So bloody annoying.' he added, now sounding annoyed. 'When will you people learn to enjoy life?'

The cage came to a halt and Cassie struggled to hold on, due to her silk gloves. Glancing through the bars, she could see Reaver standing in the shadows with a bunch of people. All of them, including Reaver, were wearing masks.

'I'll enjoy killing you! Does that count?' snapped Page.

'Oh you're just full of spunk, aren't you? A true heroine. You must be lightning under the bed sheets.' Reaver said casually, before addressing his guests. 'And now, as promised, the evening's piece de la resistance. Another piece of the resistance. Voila!' he added, making the cage move even higher up.

Cassie finally had to admit defeat and let go of the cage and landing gracefully on her feet.

'Do try to put on a good show for my guests, won't you?' Reaver said mockingly to Cassie and Page from above.

'Show?' snapped Page again. 'You expect us to entertain you?'

'But of course. It's just a game, my little sweet.' Reaver sounded as though he was thoroughly enjoying himself.

The game turned out to be like the old Crucible. Page and Cassie had to first fight hobbes, then hollow men, followed by mercenaries, then Sand Furies from Aurora - Cassie didn't want to know how Reaver came by them -, and finally, he sent balverines on them, which turned out to be his guests. Fortunately, Page and Cassie were able to defeat every single creature and by the end, they were tired, but happy.

'Well, I must say, you've made me out to be a somewhat poor host,' said a slightly disappointed Reaver, drawing his gun and pointing it down at them. 'Rather rude of you to dispose of all my guests.'

'Now it's your turn, Reaver!' Page said coldly, aiming her gun at him and firing.

Then, before their eyes, Reaver raised his cane and held it in front of him, knocking the bullet back towards the girl's feet.

'You forget, Page. He's a Hero of Skill.' Cassie murmured to Page.

'More like an anti-Hero of Skill,' replied a bitter Page.

'You are wasting your time,' Reaver said coldly, his gun aimed directly at Page's heart.

'Do you have any idea who this is?' Page asked quickly, sensing danger.

'Who? Your friend?' asked a bored Reaver. 'Should I know her?'

'She's Logan's sister, Princess Cassandra.' said Page, taking off Cassie's mask and hat.

Reaver moved into the light, lowering his gun and removing his mask and hat. He stared down at Cassie with a peculiar look on his face, but Cassie couldn't help but stare back. She knew Reaver from somewhere, she knew it. He looked so familiar, but she just couldn't place where. Meanwhile, Reaver had removed his peculiar expression and replaced it with an indifferent one.

'The king's sister, a bona fide Hero...' he drawled, leaning against the railing. 'Well, I wouldn't dream of coming between siblings. Well, that's not strictly true...there was that time...Anyway,' he said, walking away, 'best of luck with this whole revolution lark. Perhaps we'll meet again one day. Tatty-bye.'

'Bloody coward,' muttered a bitter Page, before leaving to help Kidd. When they came back to find Cassie, they saw that she was still standing in the same place they had left her.

'Are you alright?' asked Page.

'Huh, yeah...well, no.' admitted Cassie. 'Reaver reminds me of someone, but I don't know who. Does he remind you of anyone?'

'Besides a block of ice? No.' said Page.

'He said "tatty-bye".' said Cassie.

'So?' asked Kidd.

'How many people do you know or have heard of that say that?'

'No one.'

'Except...my father. He use to say that all the time, plus he use to change between English and other languages like Reaver did.' said Cassie. They were the only things she could remember about her father.

'What's your point, Cassie? Are you trying to say that you think Reaver is King River?' asked Page.

'I don't know. My father was kind. Not heartless like Reaver. Besides, he died a long time ago.' sighed Cassie. 'Let's get out of here.'

Once outside and away from Reaver's mansion, Page turned to Cassie.

'I never thought I'd side with royal blood,' admitted Page. 'But you're nothing like your brother. The Bowerstone Resistance will follow you without question. So long as you promise to change things when you take the throne. Poverty, children forced to work, people living in fear...you have to make it stop.'

'I promise,' vowed Cassie.

'All right then.' Page said, sighing with relief. 'We should get back. We've got a revolution to plan.'

'Right, I'll meet -' Cassie was cut off as a town crier delivered a message for all to hear.

'All citizens gather at the castle for the king's message!' yelled the crier. 'The speech will commence tomorrow at noon!'

'This is never good,' said Kidd.

'You should find to what it's about,' Page told Cassie. 'I'd come with you, but there's a reason we stay underground. We'll see you at the base when it's over, all right?'

'Sure thing,' said Cassie, before disappearing to the Sanctuary to get changed into her original outfit.

Once changed, she went back to Millfields, formerly known as Bower Lake. True, she could have travelled to the castle using the Sanctuary map, but something told her not too. It was that something that made her walk through Millfields towards the Castle. Nothing particularly exciting happened, unless you count fighting mercenaries, until she was about to enter Bowerstone Market.

As Cassie was walking past a house, there was a woman out there yelling, 'Reaver rules! Reaver rocks! I love Reaver's smelly socks!'

Cassie stopped dead hearing that, and looked at the woman in disbelief wondering how anyone could love such a heartless man, before realising the woman probably just liked his looks.

The woman, catching sight of Cassie, hurried over to her, and said conversationally, 'I just love Reaver! I adore him! He's just so great, so...Ooooh, you know, just so...so scrummy and hot!'

Yep, definitely because of his looks, thought Cassie.

'I've got a great Reaver collection,' she continued, looking absolutely insane. 'Handkerchiefs, signed books, one of his breads, a hat, a pair of trousers - even a photograph! Anyway, I've got loads of Reaver stuff - except one thing. One special, special thing...his underpants. I know, I know it sounds weird,' she said, misreading Cassie's look of disgust, 'but I really want a pair of his undies! And they can't be too fresh either.'

'Let me guess, you want me to get you a pair?' sighed Cassie. 'All right, fine. I'll do this - er -peculiar request.'

'Really? I can't believe it! Thank you!' she exclaimed.

Cassie nodded and head back the way she had came.

As she headed back to Reaver's to find a pair of his underwear, she hoped that she wouldn't come across Reaver himself. If she did, it would be a very awkward meeting, for her anyway. Who in their right might would want a pair of someone's underwear? Reaver's especially. Anyway, Cassie arrived at Reaver's mansion in Millfields and knocked on the door, hoping that no one would answer it, she was in luck. After waiting five minutes, Cassie slowly eased opened the mansion's door and nervously looked around. She was not scared of Reaver, she just did not know what to make of him and he already had proved himself extremely talented with any sort of ranged weapon - since he was the Hero of Skill - and that he was extremely heartless.

After making sure that no one was in sight, Cassie headed up the stairs seeing as she figured that is where Reaver's bedroom would be. After walking along many corridors and trying many doors, she soon found his room and began to search all his draws and cupboards but found nothing. That was odd. What kind of person had a bedroom with no clothes in it?

Sighing and feeling as though she was being made a fool of, Cassie went over to a bookcase against the middle wall opposite the door and looked to see what kinds of books Reaver had. It was no surprise when she saw that they were all to do with sex and other things along those lines, but just as she was about to turn away when a certain book caught her eye. A book that was out of place among the rest. It was a battered history book of the region once known as Oakvale. Cassie of course knew all about Oakvale. She spend many days in the library reading and learning everything see could about it seeing as her father was born and grew up there, but what Cassie wanted to know was why Reaver had a book on it. He never came across as a historian and why would he have it in with books it was currently with? Curious as to why the book would be there, Cassie reached out to take the book, and it was then that she discovered its secret. When Cassie pulled on it she found out that it was in fact a hidden lever and when Cassie pulled on it, the bookcase next to it moved away to reveal a hidden passage way.

After a quick look around to double check that no one was watching her, Cassie headed down the secret chamber to see where it led.

Knowing my luck, it will lead to a room of hungry balverines. Cassie thought bitterly.

Man was she in for a shock when she arrived in the hidden room. Nothing could prepare her for what she was about to find out. The secret compartment turned out to be another bedroom, but what surprised Cassie most was there were pictures of Logan, her mother and herself, as a child, in the room. As you can imagine this sort of freaked Cassie out. Was Reaver some obsessed fan or something? Looking around she began to see many photos of her mum and Reaver. What was this? Was Reaver close to her mother? Did they date or something? Looking around the room, Cassie's attention was caught by the giant portrait hanging above the fireplace. In the portrait was her mother looking as beautiful as ever, beside her was Logan at the age of fifteen and none other than a smiling and loving Reaver, if the picture was anything to go by. In Reaver's arms was none other than Cassie at the age of five. How was this possible? Was Reaver not who he said he was?

Cassie was confused, but her confusion soon turned to horror when she began to read Reaver's journal for answers, though she only needed to read the most recent entry to learn the truth.

I saw Cassie for the first time today in years. Eleven years it has been since I last saw her. Eleven years of her life, I have missed. If only, there had been another way to protect her and our family. When I looked at her, I saw Amy. She looks just like my beloved. She even wore the same facial expression that Amy wore the first time we met. I miss Amy so much. So much that words cannot describe the pain in my heart. Not a day has gone by that I have not missed her. If she were here, everything would be all right. She would know what to do with the darkness approaching and I would not have to see Logan so stressed and tired. He would have been able to live a happy life and would not be hated by the people so much. One-day things will change. One day Cassie will know the truth. One day Albion will be happy and prosperous once more. One day Cassie will be queen with Logan there beside her for guidance. One day the three of us will be a family again and I will finally be River of Oakvale once more.

Cassie could not believe it. Reaver was really River of Oakvale, but that would make him her father and that just was not possible! King River was a kind and gentle man! True he was once a heartless thief but that all changed when he met and fell in love with Queen Amy.

'You know it's rude to be in someone's house without permission, but it's even ruder to read someone's private journal.' said a quiet voice from behind Cassie, scaring her out of her thoughts.

Whipping around Cassie saw none other than Reaver himself leaning against the doorframe watching her. How did he manage to move so quietly? He was neither angry nor was he annoyed. In fact, he was smiling gently at her.

'I thought that the time was coming for you to know the truth, but I never wanted you to find out this way.' continued Reaver. 'Logan and I were planning on sitting you down and explaining everything to you.'

'Explain what? Explain how you have been alive for years and slowly destroying Albion by making children work and slowly draining the people?' Cassie demanded furiously. 'Is that why you left us? Had you had enough of being the people's caring king? Was it to boring? Did you need some excitement? Did you miss being a cold heartless monster?'

'You have got it all wrong, sweet heart.' Reaver said sadly as he walked over to one of the cupboards and pulled out a hooded cloak. 'I suggest we go to see what Logan's announcement is, and then we'll sit down and have a very long conversation.'

'And if I refuse?' Cassie asked stubbornly.

'You and I both know that you won't,' replied Reaver. 'But before we do head out, I would like to know what you were doing here in the first place.'

'I was looking for one of your underpants.' Cassie said, before blushing when she caught sight of the look he was giving her. 'I didn't want them for myself or anything!' she added hurriedly. 'One of your fans asked me to get a pair for her and I agreed to help her.'

Reaver stared at his daughter for a while before going to one of his draws and pulled out a pair of his underwear before chucking it at her.

'Take these. That way you will be able to complete your - er - unusual and somewhat nerve racking quest.' he said as he led Cassie out of the mansion. 'I don't recall your mother ever having weird quests like that, even though weird things did seem to happen during the quests at some point.'

'Like that man that lived with Hobbes and dressed as a woman?'

'Yes, that was a weird one but if she had not have met him and had not have read his journal, she would have never of made peace with the Hobbes, though that all went down the drain when she died.' Reaver concluded sadly, and not because of the peace with Hobbes ending either.

Father and daughter were now outside the mansion and Reaver causally slipped his hood up over his head before speaking once more.

'I just realised where you got your bad habit from of reading other people's journals, your mother.' Reaver said conversationally. 'She use to do that to when she was on quests and whatnot. Another bad habit that I can see you picked up from her is wearing hats inside. It too was with a highwayman's hat, a hat that looked just like yours. In fact she wore the exact same outfit as you when she was out saving Albion.'

'That's because this is Mum's.' Cassie said, her voice thick with emotion. 'I found it in the Sanctuary. I miss her so much.'

'You and me both. And I know that Logan misses her too.' Reaver said gently as he led the way through Millfields.

They walked the rest of the way to the castle in silence. Cassie was even more unsure of Reaver now. For years see believed that her father was dead and now, unexpectedly, she discovers that he is alive and has made the people suffer. Reaver, for his part seemed to understand that she was still unsure of him, thus he remained quiet. However, when they came to Bowerstone she broke the silence.

'Just need to make a pit stop before heading to the castle.' Cassie told Reaver.

'That's alright with me. Where do you need to go?'

'I just need to give your underwear to your adoring fan.'

'Hmm, at least I'll get to see the face of the person I need to run away from in future.' Reaver said seriously. So seriously, in fact, that Cassie started laughing that hard she all most fell over.

When they arrived at the castle, Cassie noticed Ben standing outside the gates as if waiting for her.

'Ben?' Cassie asked as she walked over to him. 'What are you doing here?'

'Besides coming to listen to your brother's announcement? Well, I've been standing out here waiting for you. I was starting to think that I had missed you.'

'No I just had an - er - errand to perform.' Cassie muttered.

'Right,' said Ben. 'And who is this?' he added, catching sight of the hooded Reaver. 'Another friend that you believed your brother had sentenced to death?'

'No, this is just someone I met. No one of any importance.' Cassie lied. She did not know why she was lying to her friend, but she somehow knew this was the right thing to do...In addition, she also knew that she needed time to come to terms with Reaver's true identity herself.

'If you say so,' shrugged Ben. 'Come on, we better go and see what your big brother has to say.'

Nodding, Cassie followed Ben towards the castle grounds where Logan would be giving his announcement. They arrived just in time to hear what he had to say, though they had missed the beginning.

'Yes. Traitors walk amongst us,' said Logan. 'Traitors plot to end us. Traitors would have you believe their cause is noble. They wear many masks. They may look like your friends. They may even look like your most loyal servants,' he added as Swift was roughly pushed onto the platform where Cassie had seen many people publicly executed. 'This...this is the face of a traitor.'

'Swift,' gasped Ben, before looking over at Cassie, who had paled.

'Major Swift,' continued Logan, 'a respected member of the army and sworn servant of the kingdom has plotted against us all. He was apprehended attempting to turn loyal soldiers against us, and is thus charged with espionage, treason, and conspiracy. Yet there are still others darkening our land with their betrayal. We shall hunt these traitors down, wherever they may be. And they shall suffer the same fate as Major Swift. The fate of all enemies of the crown.' A soldier raised his gun at the end of Logan's words and began to slowly pull the trigger.

Without hesitation, Cassie hurried forward and knocked the gun out of the soldier's hands before he could shoot Swift.

'How dare you,' growled Logan's soldier, before shooting a glance at Logan for further instructions.

'Guards, arrest the traitor's companion. Disloyalty must be punished accordingly.' Logan said coldly.

'So will you have your own sister executed too, dear brother?' Cassie asked coldly as the guards started to advance on her.

Logan threw up his hand signalling for his soldiers to stop.

'Cass?' he breathed quietly. He frowned down at her as though trying to work out if it really was Cassie.

It was then that Cassie realised that she Logan could not see her face properly due to her hat casting a shadow over her face. She took off the hat and looked up at her older brother, eyes full of defiance.

Logan's face grew cold once more.

'Guards, please escort my sister to her chambers and make sure she doesn't leave -'

'You can't do that!' Cassie snapped.

'Just try me, Cassandra.' Logan said coldly. Cassie knew that he must be extremely angry with her to call her by her full name.

'I'd rather not,' growled Cassie, before demanding. 'What happened to you? You use to be a fair and gentle ruler like Mum and now you are nothing but a cold and selfish tyrant! How could you do that to your people? Mum would have died of shame if she could see what you have become and have done!'

Cassie knew that was low to bring their dead mother into it, but she could not stop the words from coming out of her mouth. Logan flinched at Cassie's words as though she had gone up there and slapped him. He just stared at her with hurt eyes before regain his composure and motioning to the guards to arrest them.

Once again, the guards started to advance, but Cassie was one-step ahead of them and so was Ben. He ran through the crowd and straight to Cassie's side, but that was his only plan. That was one of Ben's major flaws. He never looked at the big picture or long term effects.

'So, what's the plan, Cassie?' he asked cheerfully.

'The plans to get the two of you out of here alive.' Cassie replied as she looked around for an escape route. Logan had made it clear that she was not to be harmed, but Swift and Ben were another story. They were seen as traitors and would be killed without hesitation.

'You might as well surrender for we have got you surrounded.' One of the guards growled.

'Yeah, but we've got more talent and brains then all of you put together.' retorted Ben. 'What?' he added when he noticed the look Swift and Cassie were giving him.

Cassie shook her head and tried to think of a way out of this situation or for some sort of miracle to happen. Then, as though her prays had been answered, each of the advancing guards fell to the ground clutching their legs. At first, Cassie did not understand what had just happened but as she looked out through the crowd, she saw Reaver's hooded figure holding a recently fired gun. She now understood what had happened. Reaver had just saved them.

'Nobody of any importance, huh?' Ben said to Cassie with raised eyebrows.

Cassie ignored his comment and told him to help her get Swift out of the palace, stopping briefly to say a quick, yet quiet thanks to Reaver.

'Both of you head back to the resistance's quarters and I will meet you there.' Cassie said once they were safely in Bowerstone, well as safe as they could get.

'Why, where are you going?' asked Swift.

'I'll be a short distance behind making sure that we aren't followed.' Cassie answered, before heading back to the Bowerstone Castle to get a good idea of what was happening.

Once at the castle, Cassie snuck into the servant's quarters and stole some clothes so she could try to walk around the palace without fear of being chased by guards. At one point she thought that she had been recognised when a guard came up to her, but all he did was tell her to bring some food and wine to the war room for King Logan and Reaver. Cassie gladly did as he said for she thought it would be a good idea to find out what her brother was planning though she was worried that he would recognise her. She prayed that he would be too busy to pay any attention to a servant.

Once Cassie was outside the war room, she knocked on the door and waited to be told to come in. She did not have to wait long.

'Enter,' came Logan's tired voice.

Cassie hesitantly opened the door and walked inside. Reaver had taken off his hooded cloak and was calmly sitting in one of the comfortable armchairs, while Logan was bent of the map of Albion and Aurora, looking extremely tired. Neither of them paid much attention to Cassie, instead they just continued with their conversation as though she was not there.

'Again. How could you help them get away?' Logan demanded. 'Cassie should be here in the castle where it is safe helping me instead of helping those traitors!'

'Logan, she's not a child anymore. She deserves to know the truth.' Reaver replied reasonably.

'No, I will not tell her. She's safer not knowing.'

'How will she be safer not knowing? When it comes -'

'When it comes it shall meet its doom.'

'Logan, be reasonable. It cannot be killed! We saw that all those years ago. Your mother, Garth, Hammer and I all gave it the best we had and it still lives!'

'Nothing is immortal.' Logan replied stubbornly.

Reaver said nothing about his comment.

'You know you're probably not going to see your men again.' Reaver said conversationally. 'Cassie is a Hero, just like your mother. She will not come back without a fight.'

Logan said nothing and Cassie knew that she ought to leave. Normal servants just dropped the food off and left, but she had lingered a little too long and she ought to go after those soldiers Logan foolishly sent after her.

Silently, Cassie left the room and headed after Swift and Ben. On her journey back to the resistance's headquarters, Cassie pondered over what Logan had said. What was he trying to protect her from? And what was coming to Albion that even four Heroes couldn't defeat? All these questions spun around her head and she forced them to the back of her mind. Whatever it was she could not afford to worry about it now. She would worry about it once Logan's rule of tyranny was over.

When Cassie arrived back at headquarters, she found Walter, Page, Swift and Ben all standing around the map of Albion. They looked up as she entered.

'Ben and Swift told us what happened. I'm proud of you. Your mother would have done the same thing.' Walter told me.

'Yes, and you have my undying gratitude, Princess.' added Swift.

'Listen, I know this might be a bit off topic but why are you wearing servant garnets and why were you so late coming back here? I thought you said you would be only a short distance behind us.' said Ben.

'I had to make a out stop at the palace to see what Logan is up to, that's why I'm dressed as a servant, plus I had to take care of a handful of guards that were following you.' Cassie replied with a slight shrug as though it did not really matter why she was late.

'The boys also told us about your hooded friend. We could use a man like that on our side.' said Page.

'If you're thinking about trying to get him to join us you will be wasting your time.' Cassie replied bluntly. 'He doesn't take sides and when he does he has a good reason to.'

'So who is this man? Do I know him?' asked Walter.

'You could say that,' Cassie muttered mysteriously.

'You're as bad as your mother,' muttered Walter, shaking his head.

'Well, this has been a lovely conversation but I'm curious as to what Swift found out in the palace before he was caught. Did you manage to find any allies?' Cassie asked Swift, sounding a little like her father.

'There are some soldiers there that will fight for you but not enough for an army.' Swift replied sadly. 'Though I did find out that we can find allies in Aurora.'

'I still don't understand how anyone there could help us,' said Page. They had been discussing it before Cassie had arrived. 'Aurora is a dead land. There's nothing there.'

'Or at least, that's what we've been told,' said Walter. 'The royal family use to go there every year, I myself went a couple of times, and it had a beautiful civilisation.'

'Use to?' repeated Page.

'Cassie's parents got into an argument with their leaders and after that; they never went over again, though Logan continued to go there, until five years ago. Apparently, he too got into an intense argument. Which is why he might have told us that it was a dead land.' said Walter.

'Regardless, it is the only lead we have,' said Swift.

'Can we get on with the plan?' Ben asked impatiently. 'I have an overwhelming urge to shoot someone.'

'First thing, we'll need a ship.' said Walter. 'Cassie and Ben will get hold of one while Page and I make sure the rest of the fleet doesn't follow. Swift, it would be safer for you if you stay here.'

Swift nodded his understanding while Page said to Ben and Cassie, 'You'll need to go via the back alleys. And they'll be crawling with soldiers.'

'Not a problem,' said Ben confidently. 'I know my way around the place.'

'Right, I better go and tell Elliot what is happening.' said Cassie. 'Ben, where do you want to meet up?'

'The back of the sewers will do,' replied Ben.

Cassie nodded and went back to her and Elliot's new house. It took a while to explain what had happened - leaving out the part about Reaver being River - and after many tears later - from Gail - Cassie left, ready to return once more to Aurora.

* * *

><p><strong>Azaelia Silmarwen facebook page:<strong> link on profile  
><strong>Written: <strong> 1 December 2011

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT CLAIM OWNERSHIP OVER THE ORIGINAL COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL IN THIS STORY. THIS IS A NON-PROFIT FANDUB CREATED BY FANS, FOR FANS. NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED. FAIR USE ONLY.**


	9. Return to Aurora and The Darkness

**CHAPTER NINE: RETURN TO AURORA AND THE DARKNESS**

Cassie met up with Ben at the back end of the sewers, just as planned.

'We need to get to the far end of the dock,' whispered Ben, leading the way out of the sewers. 'So probably best not to shoot until we have to.'

'Are you giving me that advice or yourself that advice?' questioned Cassie, knowing how rash Ben could be.

'Both,' grinned Ben. 'Oh, leave the talking to me. I have an idea.'

'Uh huh,' said an unconvinced Cassie.

'What? I do!' said Ben. 'Why is it that nobody ever believes me?'

Cassie did not answer for they were approaching one of Logan's soldiers who was guarding the gate.

'Stop!' ordered the soldier, catching sight of a captain and a highwaywoman. 'Only Royal Guards allowed.'

'I know,' said Ben, sounding impressed. 'But can I just say, wow, you look so stylish, you know, with the helmets and everything. Me and my friend were wondering if we could join you because, I mean, you just make us ordinary soldiers feel so inadequate.'

'Leave!'

'Come on,' begged Ben. 'Don't you have any leaflets or application forms we could take with us? If we could just get inside and get your autographs. We're big fans.'

Speak for yourself, though Cassie.

'Leave or we will be forced to terminate you!' snapped the guard, getting annoyed now.

'Aw, see?' said Ben, turning to Cassie. 'Even their vocabulary is stylish.' he said, before whipping around and shooting the guard.

Cassie gave him a look.

'Okay, I admit it. I didn't really have a plan.' said Ben as the rest of guards began to sound the warning bells of an attack.

Together Cassie and Ben had to fight their way pass soldier's to the docks. As they were heading to the docks though, one of the large cranes near the water came crashing down, destroying the vast majority of Logan's fleet and damaging the rest.

'Wow, that should keep the bastards occupied,' commented Ben. 'Come on, the way to the ship should be clear.'

'You were saying,' asked Cassie as they rounded the corner coming upon a group of soldiers.

Ben did not say anything, but his facial expression spoke louder than words as they began to take care of the men that stood in their way. Once they had finished, Walter appeared.

'Walter! What kept you?' asked Ben, acting as though they had been there for ages.

'We have to hurry!' said Walter, ignoring his comment. 'They're going to be following us after all!'

'What about Page?' asked Ben.

'She's staying behind. Someone needs to organise things here.' said Walter. 'Now, come on!' he said, walking over to a row boat with Cassie and a disappointed Ben following behind him. 'Well, it's not much, but at least it floats,' he added, looking down at the boat. 'That's what counts.'

Ben and Cassie exchanged a look and looked over to a nearby ship.

'Or, you know, we could take this one and then not drown as soon as we leave port,' suggested Ben, walking over to it.

'I'm taking Ben's side with this one, Walter,' said a serious Cassie.

'Wow, someone actually agreed with me,' said a surprised Ben, hopping into the ship followed by Cassie and then Walter.

Before they knew it, they had set sail. The last time Cassie had been on a ship, she had been four years old. She never knew that the salted air could feel so good and refreshing. For the first time, since she left the castle, she had felt relaxed, as though nothing could go wrong, until...

'One of Logan's ships is following us!' yelled Ben. 'And they're gaining!'

Next minute Cassie was knocked to her feet as the ship started firing at them.

'That's not good,' muttered Walter.

Again and again, the enemy ship fired at them and before they knew it their ship had sunk...

**-THE HAPPENINGS-**

Cassie was wet, but hot. Slowly, Cassie sat up out of the wet sand she had been laying on and lightly patted a worried Lightning's head. All around her was the wreckage of their ship, but no sign of Ben or Walter until...

'Cassie! Ben!' Came the yelling of Walter's voice, next minute he rounded the corner, caught sight of her, and hurried over.

'Thank goodness!' he sighed. 'Are you all right?'

'Yes. Where's Ben?' asked Cassie, getting to her feet.

'It looks like we didn't all make it,' replied Walter sadly. 'I only hope...well, maybe he washed up somewhere else. I'm sure that's it,' he said, trying to be positive. 'Anyway, the only way forward seems to be through a rather ominous cave.'

Cassie only nodded and followed Walter mutely, with Lightning running ahead of them.

'Before we go any further, I'd just like to say one thing,' said Walter.

'And what's that?' Cassie asked glumly.

'BALLS!' he yelled, making it echo around the cave.

Cassie could not help but smile as she climbed over a small mountain of rocks. The way they were positioned made her think that the cave tunnel had once caved in. Hopefully Walter wouldn't notice.

Next minute Lightning started barking happily up a head.

'Hello, sounds like Lightning's found something.' Walter said excitedly, quickening his pace. 'You never know, it might be a luxury inn...oh bats,' muttered Walter, excitement disappearing when they discovered that Lightning had found bats. 'Good work, boy. Bats are exactly what we needed right now.'

Cassie giggled, before coming sombre as Walter brought up Ben.

'What do you think happened to Ben?' he asked. 'He's a strong swimmer. Probably reached a sandy beach somewhere. Palm trees. Beautiful women. Coconut cocktails. Jammy bast - what the hopping Hobbes is that?'

They had arrived in a large room with some sort of purple barrier that was protecting a hole in the ground with a flight of stairs leading downwards.

'It must be protecting something! Like the way out, most likely.' said Walter, before they both hurried towards it. When they got closer, they saw skeletons all around the barrier. This made Cassie nervous.

'Wherever we are, we're not the only ones who got stuck in this damn place,' muttered Walter. 'Not the most encouraging sign in the world, is it? Still they might have something useful on them.' he added, bending down to one group of skeletons. 'Why don't you check the second lot over there?' He pointed to a second group.

Cassie did as he suggested and went and had a look. As she examined the pile, she felt the blood drain from her face.

'Walter,' she said quietly, knowing that he would still be able to hear her. 'Some of these men, their Albion soldiers,' she said, showing him a scrap of material that held the Albion crest.

'That must mean this is the place that your mother and the three Heroes, Garth, Hammer and Reaver, came to with a dozen or so soldiers to find Logan when he was five years old.' gasped Walter. 'Every soldier and every one of Reaver's men were slaughtered. As such, each family received compensation for they lost and a personal visit from the old queen and king.'

'Then there is hope for us,' Cassie said, trying to sound confident. 'If the four Heroes were able to escape, they we should be able to, too! And it must have something to do with that barrier!'

'And I think I've found something that might help.' exclaimed Walter. 'One of these poor sods left a journal. Most of the pages have disintegrated but...well, you can still see plenty of weird symbols, that match the ones around the edge of the barrier...and it doesn't say how to open it,' sighed Walter. 'Instead they have gobbledygook.'

'Gobbledygook?' repeated Cassie.

'Yes, I mean, listen to this nonsense: "Luminous spirits of the sands, inhale the restless gloaming".' laughed Walter. 'What's that suppose to -?' He cut off as the barrier disappeared. 'Look at that! Can you believe I did that?'

He started laughing again, while Cassie joined him at the stairs.

'Uhh...it does look somewhat dark though,' he muttered hesitantly as they walked down the stairs. 'Maybe going down isn't such a good idea.'

Lightning barked at him and nudged him with his head, as though to say, 'Get moving.'

'Oh yeah?' Walter said to Lightning. 'Well, why don't you lead the way if you're so tough? Oh, very funny,' he added as Lightning did as he said, before following grudgingly.

None of them noticed the barrier returning.

When Walter had said that it looked "somewhat dark", little did he know that it was an understatement. Little did he know that they were walking into complete and utter darkness. Thankfully, Lightning was with them, which meant that he was able to find a torch for them.

Together they walked quietly through the darkness, making as little noise as possible, except when Cassie pulled a level to create a bridge. One would have thought that something had exploded. Once they had crossed the bridge, they came to another purple barrier.

'Now where have we seen that before?' said Walter, stopping in front of it. 'Stand back. Walter the Scholar will deal with this. Hmm...with an increasing sense of trepidation, admittedly. Luminous spirits of the sands, inhale the restless gloaming.' The barrier disappeared. 'There you go, what can I say? I have a knack for gibberish.'

Cassie laughed and followed him through the archway, before whipping around as it sealed itself.

'Um. Do you ever get the feeling somebody's playing games with us?' asked Walter, becoming quiet apprehensive.

'All the time.'

'Let's just be thankful and get through this place as quickly as we can.' he said, glancing down at a single skeleton, which turned out to be the last one they ever saw.

They continued down the path before stopping abruptly when white eyes began to appear in the darkness and a cold voice spoke to them.

'The light you bring will die. The light inside you will die. All that you are will die.' said the cold voice.

'Who's there? Show yourself!' ordered Walter, looking madly around.

'The children are here to play,' laughed the cold voice.

'Oh, this isn't good,' muttered Walter as Cassie drew her sword.

Then, all these shadow creatures ran at them, trying to destroy their light, and not meaning the torch. Cassie and Walter fought off the attacks, while the voice sent dreaded thoughts at them. They tried to ignore it and hurried along the path to get out of the place. The further they went the more desperate Walter became and when the torch light died, he began to panic.

'No!' he yelled, before trying to relight it. 'Not the light! Not the bloody light! Come on, work, dammit! Those things are all around us! Come on, come on, come on!'

He finally got it to work, and he grinned over at Cassie, who was gasping, looking terrified and pointing to something behind him. Slowly, Walter turned around and gasped at the creature that words could not describe, with its sickly white skin, several eyes and haunted face...The Crawler. Moments later, Walter was warding the creature away, by flinging the torch backwards and forwards. When he stopped...it was nowhere in sight.

'No, no, no, no, no...no, no, we have to get out of here. You hear me?' Walter shakily said to Cassie, leading the way again. 'You hear me? We have to get out of here! As long as we have fire we'll be alright. We have to keep walking and we'll get out of here and we'll be all right!'

'Yes Walter, we will be -'

'We are coming,' said the Crawler. 'We will devour you kingdom.'

Walter began to panic again and would have run straight into the Shadows if Cassie hadn't stopped him. Again, they fought the creatures of darkness and won once more.

'Did the blind seer not tell you about us?' the Crawler asked mockingly as they continued on their way. 'Did she not warn you?'

'What? Theresa?' asked Cassie, stopping dead. The Crawler appeared in front of her and laughed.

Its laughter seemed to last for an eternity until Walter finally lost it and threw the flaming torch at it, whilst yelling, 'QUIET!'

The torch hit the Crawler and it began to scream with pain as Cassie, Walter and Lightning ran off. Sadly, they ended up getting separated when Cassie jumped off a ledge and the darkness then took Walter. It was now Cassie's turn to panic. She could not lose her friend. She ran through the ruins the darkness lived in, fighting off the shadows that got in her way, until she arrived in a large room that was filled with black liquid oozing upwards. Around the room were different statues. At the far end of the room stood Walter, covered in the black liquid, gasping in pain.

'Walter!' yelled Cassie, running towards him.

When Cassie stopped next to him, she could see that the liquid was going down his throat and into his eyes. She stared at him helplessly, not knowing how to save him. She turned around as she heard the Crawler behind her.

'We have waited centuries for you,' it said.

'And why have you been waiting for me,' demanded Cassie, sounding braver than she felt.

'For you are the one foretold to either stop the darkness or be destroyed by It.' it told her. 'We hoped to prevent your existence by kidnapping your brother all those years ago to lead your mother and father to their doom. We thought we had succeeded when I was able to poison your mother's blood, but sadly we didn't succeed.'

'Poisoned her blood,' whispered Cassie. Maybe River had lied to everyone, including Logan when he said that it was a sudden illness that had taken Amy's life. Maybe it was this creature in front of her's poison that shortened her life. If that was true, it was going to die for what he stole from her.

Cassie made a strike at the creature, but it disappeared laughing and sent its shadow children in its place. They were no match for Cassie, so he brought the bird like statues to life instead to defeat her. None of them prevailed. In a last attempted to kill her, it brought to life a sentinel...it also failed, but the fight with it left Cassie weak.

'This land is ours! Darkness shall spread across the world!' exclaimed an angry Crawler as Cassie ran over to Walter, who had been freed from the dark liquid.

'Walter? Walter can you hear me?' Cassie asked urgently. 'Walter, say something!'

'I can't see a thing,' said a scared Walter, raising his head. Cassie was shocked to see only redness where his eyes were. 'It blinded me. I can't see!'

'It's okay, Walter. I'm here,' said Cassie, helping her mentor to his feet, draping his arm around her shoulder to help him out of the darkened ruins.

**-THE HAPPENINGS-**

'Are we out? Did we get away?' Walter asked as the hot Aurora, desert breeze hit their faces. Cassie stopped momentarily to take of her coat, while saying, 'Yes, we're safe now.'

'What can you see?'

'A desert.' Cassie answered, leading Walter, up to some ruins that overlooked the desert.

'I can feel the heat and the sand but...whatever that thing did to me, it's like it sucked all the light from inside me.' said Walter. 'I still can't see anything.'

'Careful, there's steps up ahead,' Cassie warned and they climbed one of the ruins.

By the time they reached the top, Walter was panting.

'I'm not sure...I don't know how far I can go,' he panted. 'Are there no signs of civilisation?

'There's something in the distance. It looks like an enormous statue.' answered Cassie.

'How far?'

'It's going to take us a few hours.'

'You go. Leave me here.' Walter said at last.

'What? There is no way that I'm leaving you here to die!' Cassie said firmly.

'No, Listen to me. I can't see. I can barely stand. I'll only slow you down. I'll get you killed. You have to go on without me.'

'Never,' Cassie said firmly, taking hold of him and helping him towards the desert.

They had only gone a few metres when Walter collapsed, but he was too heavy for Cassie to carry.

'I can't leave you here,' said Cassie, when he told her to leave him again.

'You have to,' argued Walter.

'All right,' said a reluctant Cassie. 'I'll come back for you...I promise.'

'You'll do me proud. I know you'll do me proud.'

'I'll be back,' Cassie promised, before running off into the desert towards the statue.

As she ran through the scorching heat, the Crawler's voice spoke to her and showed her images of Walter being blind. The creature mocked her, insulted her and spoke of how she had abandoned Walter. She tried to block it out, but in the end, it just became too much and darkness consumed her as she fell...

When Cassie opened her eyes, she saw a young woman, probably Logan's age, hovering above her, looking concerned. She was bald with a thick white stripe down the middle of her face and a blue tattoo on the side of her head.

'She's still alive,' the woman said gently, speaking to someone out of Cassie's vision. 'The other can't be far away.'

'Taking a nap in the sun?' asked Ben, bending down next to Cassie, taking her hand and brushing hair out of her face. 'Typical royalty. You had me worried there for a while.'

'Walter,' she muttered. Her brain still wasn't functioning properly.

'Don't worry. We'll find him.' Ben promised. 'You just sit tight, Cassie.' he said as darkness took her once more.

When Cassie awoke again, she was out of the desert and in a room that looked strangely familiar. Lightning was by her side.

'Hey, boy,' muttered Cassie, slowly sitting up and looking around. The woman she had seen in the desert was sitting by her bed.

'You are awake. Good.' she sighed, smiling down at her. 'I do not suppose you remember me, do you, little Cassie?'

'Sorry, no. You look familiar, but I can't remember who you are.' admitted a slightly embarrassed Cassie.

'That is all right. You were only four years old, last time I saw you. My name is Kalin, and you are in the city of Aurora.'

'Walter? How is he?' asked Cassie, assuming that they had found him.

'He is very fortunate to be alive, but we have seen his condition before. We may be able to help him,' answered Kalin.

'Is there another one of my friends here?' Cassie asked after a moment. 'I thought I saw...in the desert...'

'A devilishly handsome soldier by the name of Ben Finn?' asked Ben, walking towards them.

'Ben!' exclaimed Cassie, leaping up and embracing him, which he returned. 'I thought you were dead!'

'Not dead yet, my friend,' he smiled as they stepped away from each other.

'Please, follow me,' said Kalin, leading them out of the room.

'It's so good to see you,' said Ben as they followed Kalin. 'When I was fished out of the local port and Walter and you weren't there...well, I thought it was all over. Then I realised I was being an arse and worked my charms to get a search party out for you. Not that Kalin needed much persuading.'

'We are accustomed to misfortune,' said Kalin. 'Besides, I remembered you from when you were a little girl, Cassie. Now, it's time you saw our city that you once called a magical beauty, though you won't call it that now.'

When they arrived at the city, Cassie gasped. Kalin was right when she said that Cassie would not call it a magical beauty. It was more like a graveyard, except worse.

'How - how did this happen?' asked a horrified Cassie.

'The Crawler did this: the being you fought in the desert caves.' answered Kalin. 'It re-appeared five years ago, stronger than ever, bringing darkness and death, seeking revenge. The few of us who still live have known nothing but fear since.'

'Sorry, re-appeared?' questioned Cassie.

'We believed it to be dead, the day your parents, Hammer and Garth emerged from the caves, for that is what they had believed. Little did we know that it was still alive and regaining its strength.' sighed Kalin. 'We never know when it will come, and we cannot hope to defeat the creature and its spawns without an army, even with someone like you by our side.'

It was then that Cassie remembered what Reaver had said to Logan after Swift, Ben and Cassie had escaped: 'It cannot be killed! We saw that all those years ago. Your mother, Garth, Hammer and I all gave it the best we had and it still lives!'

'Logan knows that it is alive,' said Cassie.

Kalin and Ben looked at her.

'How would Logan know that?' Kalin said coldly. 'He stormed out of Aurora before it attacked after have a fight with my father, who was the leader at the time!'

'Do you know what the fight was about?' asked Ben.

'Me, apparently,' Kalin said after a while, confusing both Ben and Cassie. Why would they be arguing over Kalin? 'Ben has told me about your cause and I and my people will help you, but only if you promise that once you are Queen, that the alliance first forged by our parents will be evoked once more.'

'I promise,' said Cassie, thoughts still on Logan fighting with Kalin's father about Kalin. It did not make sense.

'Then let us go to war.'

**-THE HAPPENINGS-**

Three days later, Walter was up and moving again, so they decided to head back to Albion, only thing was, they were not going the entire way. It had been decided that they would meet Page and the other allied leaders in the middle of the ocean, between Aurora and Albion in order to avoid drawing attention to what they were planning.

The moment they arrived at the meeting point, the Auroran fleet stopped, and Walter, Ben, Kalin and Cassie climbed aboard the Albion ship that had been waiting for them.

'Mummy!' yelled Gail, the moment Cassie set foot on the boat. 'I missed you so much!'

'I missed you too, sweet heart!' said Cassie, picking Gail up and holding her tightly, before embracing Elliot.

'Thank goodness you have returned safely,' muttered Elliot, before leading them over to the others.

Page, Sabine and Swift were all standing there waiting for them, and after all the pleasantries and introductions had been made, they got down to business. All of them took their places around a small table holding a map of Bowerstone and the castle, while Gail went off and played with Lightning.

'All right, I've got it,' Page said an hour later. 'I take a small group of soldiers down this route -' she pointed out the route on the map '- and blow up the west barracks. It will draw their attention and open up the main route.'

'How is that better than my idea?' asked Ben.

'We will last longer than a few seconds.' Kalin said bluntly, saying what everyone was thinking.

'Oh, well, now you're just picking holes,' muttered Ben. The group had already had a lengthy conversation telling Ben why his plan would not work.

'Give it up, boy,' said Sabine. 'What I want to know is what my men need to do.'

'That is for the future Queen to decide,' said Walter, while Swift nodded his agreement.

'Page knows the city best. We'll follow her plan,' Cassie said firmly.

'Fine,' sulked Ben. 'I only put mine forward to annoy her anyway.'

'I see you've really matured on your travels,' said Page, looking over at him, before turning back to the map. 'If you look at the map, we can go through the details.'

'My ships will take you to the beach here,' motioned Kalin.

'We can expect heavy mortar fire, but most of Logan's soldiers will be busy dealing with Page and he men.' said Walter.

'I want to be in the thick of the smoke and the fire and the glory,' said a stubborn Sabine. 'If Page takes the west route, it's only fair I take the east.'

'Which leaves the centre to Swift, Walter, Cassie and I.' Said Ben, before adding, 'Less chance of getting lost.'

'Then, we've agreed?'

Everyone nodded. Cassie had begged Elliot to remain with Gail, in the Sanctuary come time for the civil war.

* * *

><p><strong>Azaelia Silmarwen facebook page<strong>: link on profile  
><strong>Written: <strong>1 December 2011

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT CLAIM OWNERSHIP OVER THE ORIGINAL COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL IN THIS STORY. THIS IS A NON-PROFIT FANDUB CREATED BY FANS, FOR FANS. NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED. FAIR USE ONLY.**


	10. Wars and Truths

**CHAPTER TEN: WAR AND TRUTHS**

Cassie sat nervously on the Auroran ship next to Ben, while Walter and Swift went below deck to discuss a few things. Page and Sabine had returned to their men and were currently making their way to the west and east routes. Cassie, Ben, Walter and Swift were not to act until they got the signal from Page that they had destroyed the barracks.

'You nervous, Princess?' asked Ben.

'Is it that obvious?' Cassie said with a nervous chuckle.

'Just a little.'

'Everything I have done now seem pathetic compared to what I am about to do,' admitted Cassie. 'I mean, I'm attacking my own kingdom. My own brother!'

'You're only doing what must be done. The people will understand and they will be happier with you as their queen than Logan as their king.' Ben said gently.

'But what if I turn out like Logan?' Cassie asked desperately. 'He started off fairly before he became a tyrant. What if that happens to me?'

'It won't,' Ben said firmly.

'How do you know?'

'Cause Walter, Sabine, Page, Elliot, Swift, Kalin and I won't allow it. We'll be by your side no matter what.' said Ben.

'Thanks,' smiled Cassie as she looked back towards the land mass of Albion.

Three hours later, they received a signal from Page and the Auroran ship carefully got them to the land outside Bowerstone Old Quarter. Sadly, Logan's soldiers were their waiting for them as were the Albion guards that normally guarded the palace. To Cassie's great surprise, the guards turned on the soldiers and pledged their allegiance to Cassie. Word had gotten out among the guards and they too wanted a new leader. Together, Cassie, Swift, Walter, Ben and the Albion guards fought their way to the Bowerstone Old Quarter gates, leaving a massacre behind them of soldiers and guards.

Once inside the city, the league pressed forward, smiting every enemy in their path until they were outside the castle gates where they met up with Page.

'Always with the damn gates,' cursed Ben, when he found the castle gate locked.

'What we need are explosives,' said Page. 'But I used mine up on the way here.'

'If only we knew some sort of tiny, crazy old man who enjoyed blowing things up...' said Ben, clearly still thinking about how Sabine nearly blew them up on the way there.

Next minute, the castle gate was blown off its hinges and pieces of wood went flying everywhere.

'Ha ha! Did you see that, Boulder?' laughed Sabine as he walked towards them from the other side of the blown up door. 'Let the whole city bow to our thunder!'

'Hang on,' said Ben, once his initial shock of their appearance had passed. 'How did you get to the other side in the first place?' he asked, asking what they were all thinking.

'Dwellers have their ways, my boy.' Sabine shrugged, looking around. 'Is there anyone left to kill?'

'There will be soon,' answered Page. 'More troops are on the way. Kalin's fleet got a fair few, but not all.'

'We will hold them off, Princess.' Swift told Cassie. 'You and Walter go find Logan.'

'Right,' nodded Cassie.

'Good luck in there,' said Ben, before grinning, 'Hope the crown fits.'

'Let's finish this for good,' said Walter, rolling his eyes at Ben's comment.

Cassie and Walter hurried to the War Room, knowing that's where Logan was likely to be. Once outside the War Room, Walter whispered, 'Shall we knock? Nah, let's surprise him.'

Cassie nodded and together they kicked down the doors.

They were right though, they did end up giving him a surprise, for the moment the doors went crashing down, Logan whipped around and aimed his gun at them, before lowering upon seeing who the intruders were.

'So this is how it ends. The old fool and the child who ran away.' said Logan indifferently. 'You've finally become the woman I always wanted you to be,' he added to Cassie, somewhat sadly.

Maybe because he finally realises that I'm not the little girl who use to climb into his bed after a nightmare, thought Cassie, noticing his sad look.

'She's a lot more than that,' said a cold Walter, walking towards Logan. 'And now she's ready to take your place.'

'Perhaps the time has come for someone else to lead Albion,' muttered Logan, sounding hopeful and reluctant at the same time. On one hand, he really wanted to chuck away his crown, but he was worried about setting all the pressure of the kingdom and all his mistakes on Cassie's shoulders. How would she handle it?

'You were never a leader!' Cassie snapped suddenly. 'Just enough tyrant!'

Logan flinched and not by her words, but by the tone of her voice.

'Did it ever occur to you that I may have had a good reason to be?' Logan argued back as the two of them fell into a sibling argument.

'We're not interested in your reasons!' Walter said coldly.

Logan turned calmly to him.

'Cower behind ignorance if you will, but my sister deserves to know the truth.' Logan replied just as coldly.

'Save it for the trial, Logan.' said Walter, growing tired of the conversation and grabbing him by the arm. 'You can beg for your life then.'

Walter led the calm and willing Logan out of the room, leaving Cassie alone and confused. What did Logan mean about knowing the truth? Was that what Reaver and Logan had been talking about the day of Swift's execution? In addition, why did he lower his gun when he saw them? Moreover, why did he go willingly when he could have stopped Walter? All these questions tossed and turned around her mind as she went off to find the others.

**-THE HAPPENINGS-**

Three days later, Cassie stood nervously behind the doors of the castles announcement podium where she was going to be crowned Queen of Albion in front of all her people. She only hoped that she was doing the right thing.

As she stood there waiting, her thoughts drifted back to Logan, who was currently in a prison cell, below the castle. Walter told her that it would be unwise for her to go and see him, so she had everyone that saw him report to her. Cassie was surprised to learn that Logan had not tried to resist in any way, but she was not surprised when the guards caught sight of a hooded person talking to him, before they fled. It only made sense that Reaver would make sure that his son was all right.

Cassie's thoughts were interrupted as the doors began to open to reveal the blazing sun of a beautiful day, and the cheering of the crowd below. Taking a deep breath, Cassie walked out into the sunlight.

Standing on the podium was Page, Ben Finn, Major Swift, Kalin, Sabine, Walter, Jasper - who looked like he was going to cry with proudness -, Elliot and Gail. As Cassie walked passed them, they either bowed, smiled, winked or made some motion to her.

Cassie stopped at the railing, in between Walter and Jasper and looked down at the crowd below. All of the people of Albion had come to see her. The Dwellers were there, the Resistance, people from Bowerstone, Oakfield, Bloodstone, Millfields, Mourningwood, Brightwall and even the people of Aurora had come to pay their respects.

Next to her, Walter accepted the crown off one of the guards and gently placed it on Cassie's head.

Ben will be happy, thought Cassie as the crowd began to cheer even louder. The crown does fit.

**-THE HAPPENINGS-**

Of the next few days, Cassie, Elliot and Gail moved into the palace and just spent a few days catching up on sleep and relaxing. Little did Cassie know that this would be the last time she would be able to relax of the next year.

Four days after she was crowned Queen of Albion, Walter introduced her to Hobson, her new butler seeing as Jasper remained in the Sanctuary to keep things organised and to tell her if someone needed their queens help. Cassie was not sure if she liked Hobson very much seeing as he seemed to talk about wealth a lot, but she was sure he would grow with her in time.

Her thoughts about Hobson was interrupted when Walter said, 'I'll leave you two to get better acquainted. I should begin preparations for the trial.'

As Walter left, Cassie paled slightly.

'Trial? As in Logan's?' she asked Hobson. How could she have forgotten about the trial? Maybe it was because she did not want to sentence her own brother. While she hated him for everything that he had done, he was still her older brother that protected her and practically raise her, and for that, she loved him dearly.

'Yes, of course,' said an excited Hobson. 'The very first item on today's agenda.'

'Agenda?' repeated Cassie. Why hadn't she seen this agenda?

Hobson handed her a scroll with had the agenda's on it.

Cassie's stomach dropped as she saw that Logan's trial was indeed on the top of the list. Groaning her eyes scrolled down the listed appointments and tasks and she felt her stomach drop again when she saw that she had to speak to Reaver in Bowerstone Industrial. She was not looking forward to that. What if she decided a sentence for Logan that Reaver did not like? Would he be angry with her? Upset? Indifferent?

Swallowing her fear, Cassie made her way to the throne room and sat in the throne. The trial would start in an hour's time, but Cassie knew that if she did not go now, she would chicken out.

Half an hour later, Gail ran in where a pretty, baby-pink dress. It was her dream come true to live in a castle and be a princess.

She ran straight over to Cassie and sat in her lap, before recounting her adventure in the royal gardens. As Gail spoke, Cassie felt all her fear melt away, and when the trial was to commence, Cassie allowed Gail to remain with her in order to give her strength.

'Are you ready?' Elliot whispered to Cassie as he stood beside her throne.

'No, but no time like the present to do it,' replied Cassie as Sabine, Swift, Ben, Kalin and Page took their places up with her to over look the trial and testify against Logan.

Moments later, to guards led Logan into the room. Cassie looked sadly upon Logan seeing what he had become. She had never seen her brother look so vulnerable, being restrained the way he was. As the guards and Logan stopped at the base of the steps, Logan looked indifferently at Cassie, before frowning as he noticed the child in her lap, before looking suspiciously at Elliot.

Typical, your first thought is that Elliot got me pregnant at the age of thirteen. Cassie thought, immediately knowing what her brother would be thinking. He really was an overprotective brother.

'Logan, former King of Albion, you stand accused today of crimes against the kingdom and its people,' began Walter, snapping Cassie out of her thoughts. 'Those who brought you to justice will now speak.'

'There's not a soul alive in the kingdom who hasn't suffered for his glory,' said Sabine, the moment Walter stopped speaking. 'And plenty who've died for it. I say, let him have some death of his own.' Sabine said, too Cassie, who tried hard not to flinch. Is that really what everyone wanted? Did they really want her to sentence her own brother to death?

'Look,' said a serious Ben, which was very rare, 'I'm not one for lopping people's heads off, but we nearly had to witness Major Swift being executed, like it was a bloody circus act! He deserves nothing less as far as I'm concerned.'

Cassie felt her heart drop. She was hoping that Ben would take her side, instead of wanting death. Instead, someone unexpected took her side. Someone she had thought would want him dead. Proves that Cassie was a horrible judge of character sometimes.

'But aren't we better than that?' argued Page. 'Isn't that why we fought to be here now? I've seen what Logan has done to this city. People starving to death, children forced to work...but killing him now won't solve anything.'

'Page is right,' said Major Swift. 'Death is not the answer.'

'It is not my place to decide his fate,' Kalin said quietly. Cassie noticed Logan look quickly at Kalin, disbelief present in his eyes as well as something else. It was then that Cassie remembered Kalin telling her that Logan and her use to be best friends...and even something more. 'But his betrayal condemned many of my people to death. He promised, as Queen Amy promised before him, that Aurora and Albion were allies and when Aurora was in trouble, he would come to our aid. Instead, he left us to face the darkness alone.'

Cassie noticed that Logan's features darkened at her words.

'Why are you looking at me like that?' demanded Kalin.

'How dare you blame me for the alliance breaking,' snapped Logan. 'I can stand by and allow what the others say about what I did, for it is true, but I will not stand quiet and allow you to accuse me of something that I didn't break!'

'What do you mean?' Kalin asked quietly.

'What do you mean, "What do I mean"?' asked Logan angrily. 'You father made it very clear that he no longer wished Albion and Aurora to be united, on my last visit there!'

Kalin did not reply. Instead, she just stared at Logan.

'Something happened when you returned home, didn't it?' Cassie asked quietly. 'Something happened which made you change.'

'Yes. The day I returned to Albion, I received a visit from a blind seer.' explained Logan. 'Theresa, our mother's guide. She showed me the future of the kingdom; the darkness in Aurora is coming here, bringing death, destruction and the end of our way of life, just as Mother, Father and I believed it would. The sacrifices I had to make, I did them for Albion. If a few had to suffer, it was to build an army. If a few had to die, it was to save a country.'

'If this is true...if it's really coming here...we are all in grave danger,' said Walter, looking abnormally pale, while Cassie sat there shocked. Why didn't Theresa warn her of the darkness?

Cassie suddenly became aware of everyone looking at her.

'The people await your verdict,' Elliot said quietly, barely moving his lips. He knew that she had not heard a word of what was just said. 'Execute or spare.'

'Now is not the time for revenge and too much blood has already been spilt.' Cassie said, rising to her feet, putting Gail on the chair and walking over to Logan. 'We need your help Logan. I need your help. Will you stand by my side and help me?'

'Of course,' Logan smiled gently down at her.

'The Queen has made her decision,' declared Water, motioning for the guards to realise Logan.

The moment Logan was realised, Cassie wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him tightly, startling Logan with her sudden show of emotion. However, he soon recovered from his shock and held her the way he use to.

'I know that you will never forgive me for the things I have done.' Logan told her quietly. 'You told me so once, remember?'

'Of course I do,' replied Cassie, ignoring the angry crowd that Walter was trying to dismiss. 'But I forgive you.'

'Not that that matters,' sighed Logan, stepping away from her a little, ending their hug. 'What matters now is that we defend our kingdom. The castle, my men and the throne are all yours. I'm glad to be rid of them.'

Cassie laughed lightly, before she noticed Logan looking over to a dark corner of the room. Following his gaze, Cassie briefly saw a hooded figure before he disappeared within the crowd.

Minutes later, Cassie was heading to the royal vaults to make a new tax policy when her world went foggy and she was once more standing in front of Theresa.

'You have fulfilled the first part of your destiny,' said Theresa. 'You were little more than a child when you left the castle. You have become a Hero. A leader. And now, finally, a monarch. But your journey is not yet done. Now you are Queen, you can know the truth.'

'The truth? Oh, you mean the vision you showed Logan?' Cassie demanded. 'The one where Albion will be lost to the darkness? It was never about Logan, was it?'

'I told you what you needed to know, and I never spoke anything but the truth.' Theresa said calmly. 'With Logan on the throne, Albion would have been doomed. That is why you had to take your brother's place. This much I know. Only with a Hero wearing the crown do we stand a chance of survival.'

'Then how do I stop it?'

'You won't. Its arrival is inevitable. One year from now, the darkness will fall upon Albion. All you can do is prepare and hope to save as many of your people as you can. How you do so is up to you. You have one year to do what Logan could not: be the ruler that readies Albion for the greatest threat it has ever faced. And be the Hero that can stand against it.'

With this knowledge, Cassie arrived back into the castle and quickly went to sort out the tax, before hurrying off to Logan's room.

'Enter,' came Logan's tired voice after she knocked on the door.

'Hey Cass,' he said, when he saw who it was. He was currently sitting at his window reading a history book. 'Are you all right? Why are you out of breath?'

'Can you meet me and my friends in the family room in fifteen minutes?' Cassie asked, ignoring his questions.

'Sure, I'll head there now,' replied a curious Logan.

'Great, and if you see Rea-Father, can you tell him to be there too?'

'Father's not here,' said Logan.

'Where is he then?'

'He went to the Spire, shortly after my hearing.'

'Great. I would have preferred him to be there, but I suppose it can't be helped.' Cassie said somewhat bitterly. 'Why did he go to the Spire?'

'Don't know. All he said was he needed to go and speak with Garth and Hammer about the darkness,' shrugged Logan.

'Right. Okay, I'll see you in fifteen minutes,' said Cassie, running off to find Sabine, Ben and the others.

She soon found them all talking in the throne room, along with Elliot.

'Are you ready to go to Bowerstone Industrial to talk to Reaver?' Page asked, catching sight of her. 'Have you been out running or something?' she then added, taking in Cassie's sweaty brow and shortness of breath.

'No, I've been looking for the seven of you,' answered Cassie. 'By the way, the meeting with Reaver has been postponed for something even more important. Besides, he's currently not exactly in Albion,' she added, leading them room the throne room and towards her families personal family room. She thought it would be the more private than the war room.

'What do you need to talk to us about?' asked Kalin.

'The darkness,' Cassie said simply.

'I'm not sure what to say after receiving such news,' said Walter. 'The darkness that is coming...people won't understand what it means. Nobody could, without living it first.'

'That is why we need to prepare,' said Cassie. 'Theresa told me that its arrival will be unpreventable, but that doesn't mean we can't stop it.'

'I'm sure that we can handle this enemy.' Sabine said confidently, when the allies arrived at Cassie's family's living room.

'You should not be so confident, Sabine,' warned Kalin. 'My people have died trying to defeat it -'

'Aye, but we'll be fighting it on our own ground, won't we?' interrupted Sabine. 'That means that we'll have the upper - what is _he_ doing here?' he demanded once he caught sight of Logan lounging in one of the armchairs still reading some sort of history book.

'Last time Iooked, I live here.' answered Logan, without looking up from his book. Cassie could not help but smile at her brother's comment. 'Plus my sister also asked me to be here,' he added casually.

'Why did you ask him to be here?' demanded Ben.

'Cause we need all the help we can get.' Cassie said firmly, leaving no room for argument. 'Logan has faced the Crawler before and has survived, obviously, plus he knows a lot about military and other things that can help us.'

'Fine,' muttered Ben, though he did not look to happy about it and he was not the only one.

As Cassie looked around at her friends, she could see that none of them were happy about it though Walter, Swift and Elliot were doing their best to hide their feelings, and Kalin had a particular strange expression on her face that Cassie could not decipher.

'So, what's the plan? How are we to defeat our new enemy?' Ben asked after a moment's silence.

'I'd say our best hope is fire,' answered Walter almost immediately.

'Fire? Why fire?' asked Swift.

'When we were in the cave in Aurora that the creature calls home, I - er -sort of accidentally threw my flaming torch at the creature and the moment the flames hit it, it started to scream with pain and got very angry with me.'

'Fire, hey. In that case, can't we just get Cassie to use her gauntlets and shoot fire balls at this Crawler?' asked Elliot, taking a seat next to Cassie and wrapping his arm around her shoulders. Cassie noticed Logan giving Elliot a weird look.

Probably still trying to find a reason why he is no good for me. Cassie thought. That or he's not too happy about him suggesting that I should be near that creature again.

'Yes, that's a fabulous idea.' Walter said happily. 'If only Cassie had of done that when the bloody thing was close enough back in Aurora.'

'It won't work,' came a blunt reply from the doorway.

Everyone in the room turned to see who spoke. It was Reaver. Cassie still could not get over the fact of how quietly he could move.

'What are you doing here?' demanded Page as she pointed her gun at him.

'Page, put the gun away.' Cassie said wearily. 'I wanted him to be here, but Logan said he was already gone. You were quick,' she added to Reaver, while Page grumbled something incomprehensible under her breath.

'Your mother's cullis gates help a lot,' shrugged Reaver.

'How did it go?' Logan asked Reaver as he sat down on the arm of Logan's chair.

'Let's just say it could have gone better,' answered Reaver. 'It took a lot of convincing to get them to meet me at the Spire and when they did, the atmosphere wasn't pleasant. I swear Garth was just about ready to throw a fireball or something at me at any moment. Can't understand why he hates me so much.'

'You purposely shot him in the leg!' exclaimed Logan. 'Of course he's not going to like you after that!'

'I only nipped him and that was forty-nine years ago.' disagreed Reaver, making Cassie chuckle. 'He never came across as someone that held grudges.'

'Excuse me, but would someone like to fill us in and explain why you wanted him here.' asked Ben.

'Reaver has fought the Crawler before too,' Cassie began but Kalin interrupted her.

'It can't be,' muttered Kalin, looking at Reaver with disbelief written all over her face.

'It can be,' Logan disagreed gentle.

'But...how?' breathed Kalin.

'I faked my own death,' Reaver said simply.

'Excuse me, but what are you talking about?' asked Ben.

'And what did Reaver mean when he said that he faked his own death?' demanded Page. 'He's been around for years!'

'In Aurora, we were told that King River died shortly after Queen Amy, but here he is standing in this very room looking as well as ever.' Kalin explained, not taking her eyes off Reaver's face.

'Are you saying that Reaver is King River?' snorted Page, before gasping and looking at Cassie. She only just remembered the conversation they had after Reaver's party.

Kalin nodded and Cassie and Logan both smiled as confirmation.

'Balls,' muttered Walter. 'I won't believe it until I see some proof.'

Shrugging, Reaver took off a chain from around his neck revealing a charm that was a very old carving of an owl in flight, the charm of an eagle and a very expensive wedding ring, with an engraving on it saying "My Thief". Walter recognised them immediately. How could he not? After all, River always wore his wedding ring and the owl charm for it belonged to his dead little sister, and once the king and queen had returned from Aurora with Logan, he saw that River never took off that eagle charm that belonged to a boy he raised after finding him barely alive on the streets of Bloodstone.

'By the gods, it is you River...but how?' whispered a shocked Walter.

'Like I said, I faked my own death...with Logan's help of course.' answered Reaver.

'But...why?'

'I believed it would be best if River disappeared and Reaver returned to gather as much information and money for the upcoming invasion.'

'But, that was over seven years ago!'

'True, but Amy, Logan and I have known about the darkness since Cassie was a little girl.'

'You knew that you had not killed the Crawler!' exclaimed Kalin. 'Why did you not tell my parents? Or me?'

'We did tell them, Kalin.' Reaver said gently. 'But they didn't believe us, which is why Amy, Cassie and I never returned to Aurora... as a family anyway,' he added, when Cassie coughed "Sand Fury". On their way to the castle to hear Logan's announcement, after giving Benjamina Reaver's underwear, Cassie had asked Reaver where he had gotten the sand furies and he told her that he was able to charm them and they came back with him after he made a visit to check on the Crawler's progress.

'And then Logan tried once more years later,' muttered Kalin.

'Yes. Had we of known that you were now the leader of Aurora, we would have tried again to warn you,' said Logan.

'Well, that's all in the past,' smiled Kalin.

'So why did you go and see Garth and Hammer?' asked Logan.

'Last time we encountered the beast, some of Albion's best soldiers were slaughtered like lambs along with my men and...and Norman,' answered Reaver, stumbling over Norman's name slightly. His death still hurt him. 'And Garth, Hammer, Amy and myself barely made it out alive, each of us Heroes. The creature is powerful. It has proven that by surviving being barbequed by Garth and by killing Amy -'

'What do you mean, Father?' frowned Logan, glancing over at Cassie, then back at his father. 'Mother's illness just appeared out of nowhere. You said it yourself.'

'Your mother never wanted you to know, but when we faced the creature, its claws ripped open the skin on her stomach and of course its claws were poisoned and, well...the poison eventually kill- killed her.' Reaver closed his eyes has he said the last part, trying not to cry. After Amy's death, he became a wreck, the same way when Annabelle died. However, Logan and Cassie were the only things stopping him from becoming the heartless Reaver once more.

'Reaver, or River, is right,' said Swift. 'If four Heroes, plus a small army of well trained soldiers and pirates couldn't defeat it, then we are going to need all the help we can get. With a Hero of Strength, Will and Skill, plus Cassie on our side, we shall have a chance.'

'Four Heroes sounds pretty good to me,' said Page.

'Five,' said Reaver, opening his eyes.

'Five? Who's the fifth one?' asked Ben.

'Logan,' Reaver said simply.

Everyone turned to look at Logan.

'You're a Hero of Skill too, aren't you?' gasped Elliot. 'That would explain your talent with a gun.'

Logan nodded.

After that, they discussed ways of getting enough money to build an army.

'We're not having any children labour!' Page said immediately.

'Yes, I have to go against that too,' agreed Cassie, looking over at her father, who sighed with relief.

'Thank goodness. They were costing me a fortune.' sighed a relieved Reaver.

'What are you on about? Child labour costs very little.' said Logan, with a guilty expression on his face.

'Logan, when you are tired and are in a bad mood, you make ridiculous decisions. And you're stubborner than your mother.' Reaver said bluntly. 'I couldn't just sit by and let you do that, so I was paying the children and their parents a lot of gold to keep them doing it and to keep quiet.'

'How are we to make the money then?' said Walter.

'The same way Mum did,' stated Cassie. 'She went out blacksmithing, bartending, wood chopping -'

'That was me in the end,' admitted Reaver, referring to the wood chopping part.

'- lute playing, cooking, bounty hunting and any other job you can think of, plus there was all the gold, gems and valuables she found on her travels.'

'Plus there is still the families personal vaults in Bower Lake -'

'Millfields, Father,' corrected Logan.

'Whatever - where the Guild use to be. Amy and I have been stocking it since we found out the creature was still alive, just to be safe. It's got all the treasure from her adventures and work, plus most of the fortune I've accumulated over the years from pirating and investments.' concluded Reaver.

'Which means there must be a lot seeing how old you are,' grinned Logan, knowing how much his father hated being called old.

'I am not old,' huffed Reaver.

'He's right, Logan.' Cassie said innocently.

'Thank you, Cass.'

'He's ancient,' laughed Cassie, making Logan laugh and Reaver groan.

'You two are as bad as your mother,' he grumbled.

'If I remember correctly, there is a diamond located in one of the caves beneath the Auroran wasteland.' said Kalin, getting back to business. 'It is an ancient site, an abandoned temple.'

'By doing this, we should be able to rebuild Bowerstone Old Quarter, rebuild Aurora, have more protection to the people, rebuild and open the academy, get a school for the children of Bowerstone, protect Mispeak mountains, get the guards and soldiers a pay increase, lower the taxes and whatever else needs to be done,' said a satisfied Cassie.

With that said, they began discussing what else could be done to protect the people against the Crawler and the darkness it was bringing with it.

* * *

><p><strong>Azaelia Silmarwen Facebook Page:<strong> link on profile  
><strong>Written:<strong> 11 December 2011

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT CLAIM OWNERSHIP OVER THE ORIGINAL COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL IN THIS STORY. THIS IS A NON-PROFIT FANDUB CREATED BY FANS, FOR FANS. NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED. FAIR USE ONLY.**


	11. The End

**CHAPTER ELEVEN: THE END**

At first, Cassie was confident that she would be able to raise the money needed to protect her people and have some left over for rebuilding Albion, but as the months went on, she began to find it hopeless and would stay up to all hours of the morning working. As a result, she was always tired and snapped at anyone over the simplest things. She even snapped at Gail when her daughter asked her to play dolls with her.

Elliot had tired countless times to get her to relax and sleep for at least a day and each time Cassie snapped at him and removed him from the room. As a result, he had called upon their friends to help. Walter had suffered the same fate as Elliot; Page ended up leaving the room muttering about Cassie turning into a Logan; Ben, Kalin and Swift equally had no luck, and Sabine came out with Boulder looking extremely angry. None of them knew what to do.

'We could try Jasper,' suggested Walter. 'He's never taken any nonsense from her.'

'I think he has already tried,' sighed Elliot. 'She was muttering about Jasper being as bad as you and me the other day and how she didn't have time to relax. Probably tried to reason with her through the Guild Seal.'

'Then who else can help her? We've all tried and she literally threw us from the room, well to me anyway.' said Ben.

'True. She even snapped at Gail,' said Kalin.

'What, when?' asked Page. 'And how do you know?'

'I saw her running down a corridor crying and she ran into her Uncle Logan and as he comforted her, she told him what had happened. He then went off to play dolls with her.'

'Logan, playing dolls!' laughed Sabine. 'I would have loved to see that!'

'That's it!' exclaimed Elliot.

'What's it?' asked Swift.

'Logan and Reav-River are the only two that haven't tried yet.'

'I don't know, my friend,' said Swift. 'River has been in Aurora trying to get the sand furies to join us -'

'I still do not know how he is able to get close enough to charm them,' mutter Kalin.

'- and getting that diamond Kalin mentioned. In addition, I don't think sending Logan in would be very wise. She'd probably attack him.'

'Besides, Reaver hasn't been in Cassie's life for a very long time. Does she even see him as her father?' asked Page.

'Elliot is right,' said Walter. 'Out of all of us, they probably have the best chance of handling her.'

'How did you figure that?' asked Swift.

'Logan has been with her from the beginning, which means that he knows how to handle her mood swings...most of the time -'

'Most of the time?' repeated Ben.

'There have been a few times when he has retaliated to something she has said and they have ended up fighting, but even so, he is the best chance we have.' said Walter. 'As for River, he is her father and during the sort period of time he was in her life, he didn't take any nonsense from her either. Oh, and River returned this morning,' he added. 'There's currently an army of sand furies living in his mansion and the diamond is in the treasury.'

'Well, I guess it's worth a try,' muttered Sabine. 'Do you know where they are now?'

'Logan's study,' answered Walter before leading the way.

'Let's hope this works,' said Elliot as he knocked on Logan's study door, while the others crossed their fingers.

'Come in,' called Logan.

Slowly, the group of friends entered and found Logan sitting at his desk, pouring over some maps of Bowerstone, while Reaver sat on the ground playing with Gail.

'Daddy!' exclaimed Gail, running over to Elliot and jumping into his arms. 'Are you here to play with me and Papa?'

'Maybe later, Gail,' smiled Elliot.

'If you're after my sister, you just missed her,' said Logan, without looking up. 'Though, if you are after her you better hope that it is important, for she is in a foul temper.'

'That's actually what we wanted to talk to you and River about,' said Walter. 'Each of us has tried to get Cassie to slow down and relax, but she just won't listen to us. She will not even take a day off.'

'What are you on about?' frowned Logan, looking up from his work.

'Cassie left the castle yesterday morning saying that she was going off to do some shopping and relax down by Bowerstone Old Town's docks.' said Reaver, also frowning.

'Old Quarter, Father,' corrected Logan.

'Same thing,' shrugged Reaver.

'True she left the castle, but it was to hunt gnomes,' said Elliot. 'Someone brought some gnomes to life with a gargoyle in Brightwall,' he added, noticing the confused looks he was getting.

'So she hasn't had a day off since after her crowning?' asked Logan, just to clarify. The others nodded.

'Father and I will take her out tomorrow morning,' he said after awhile. 'Just get her to meet us at the Bowerstone Bridge and we will do the rest.'

'That won't be easy,' muttered Ben.

'And overthrowing me was a walk in the park?' Logan asked, raising his eyebrows.

'Logan's right. If we could do that, we should be able to get Cassie there...but how?' said Walter.

'Tell her that you found a gnome there,' suggest Reaver innocently.

'She'll kill us when she finds out that we lied to her,' said Elliot pointedly.

'Don't worry, we'll probably get full blast of her temper,' said Reaver. 'Sometimes I wished she'd taken after me in that category, instead of inheriting her mother's foul temper. Now that I think about it, both of them inherited Amy's temper.'

Therefore, it was decided that the next morning, Reaver and Logan would take care of Cassie, while the others continued to do their work.

Reaver's plan worked in regards to telling Cassie that there was a gnome on the bridge. Elliot told her that morning, before walking with her to the bridge, though she told him that he didn't need to, but she wasn't suspicious. However, she did become suspicious when she saw Reaver, Logan, Walter, Kalin, Page, Ben, Swift and Sabine standing on the bridge.

'What's going on?' asked a suspicious Cassie, stopping in front of them.

'You are coming to Bower Lake with your brother and I, just like we did before your mother died,' said Reaver firmly.

'Oh, not you two too,' groaned Cassie. 'I don't have time for this -'

'Yes you do, and you are coming whether you like it or not.' interrupted Logan. 'If you keep going on down this path, you will turn out like me.'

'I'm not going!' Cassie said stubbornly. Many citizens of Bowerstone stopped to watch what was happening. This was the first time they had seen Logan and Reaver with the group. 'And you can't make me!'

'Cass, you sound like a spoilt two year old,' stated Logan.

'I don't care! I'm not going!'

'I was afraid you were going to say that,' sighed Logan, before walking over to his sister.

'Logan, what are you - Oi! Put me down this instant, Logan!'

Logan had grabbed her by the legs and flung her off his shoulder before walking to Millfields.

'Logan, put me down!' demanded Cassie, hitting him in the back, making him wince, but not stop. 'Dad! Tell Logan to put me down!' Cassie begged to Reaver.

Bowerstone went quiet. Did she just say...? Was River alive?

'No Cass, this is for your own good,' said Reaver, picking up a picnic basket and following them.

The market was quiet until the family was out of sight. The people couldn't believe that Reaver was their beloved King River.

**-THE HAPPENINGS-**

'Here we are,' said Reaver, a few hours later as Logan put Cassie down and rubbed his back.

Cassie glared at her brother and father.

'Cassie, wipe that look off your face,' said a stern Reaver. 'You're here to have fun, not burn holes in our face.'

'But I don't have -'

'Cassie, we have enough money at the moment,' interrupted Logan, before chucking a pair of short shorts and a singlet at his sister. 'Go get changed, and don't even think about running off!'

Grumbling, Cassie went to the Sanctuary to get changed, before coming back and seeing that Reaver and Logan had already set up the picnic and both were top and shoeless.

Cassie went and sat sulkenly between Reaver and Logan. Sighing, Logan got up with a water bottle in hand, before sneaking behind Cassie and tipping it down her back.

'Logan!' shrieked Cassie as the cold water rushed down her back. 'You're going to pay for that!' she added, grabbing another bottle and flinging water back at him while Reaver sat back and happily watched his two children muck around.

In the end, when Logan ran out of water, he managed to pick Cassie up and threw her into the Lake before jumping in himself.

'Come on, I'll race you to the big rock,' said Logan before swimming off.

'No fair, you had a head start!' yelled Cassie before tearing off after him.

'It seems, so long ago that we raced to this rock,' commented Logan, helping Cassie out of the water when they arrived at the rock.

'That's because it was,' sighed Cassie. 'It was back when we were a family and had no troubles.'

'We will be that way again one day,' promised Logan. 'Come on, let's go get some lunch.'

The family spent the entire day at the lake, laughing and reliving past memories, and by the end of the day, Cassie felt more relaxed than she had in a long time. She even felt healthier.

'Okay, I admit it. It was a good idea coming back out here,' Cassie told her brother and father as they walked back to the castle, each of them wet from their swim.

'Does that mean you will slow down now?' asked Logan.

'I don't know. If I do, what if I can't get everything done?' asked a worried Cassie.

'Who said you have to do everything by yourself?' asked Reaver. 'You know you can ask me or your brother anything. The same with your friends.'

'I guess...'

'There's no guessing, sweet heart,' smiled Reaver. 'How about this. Let me deal with finding the gnomes and Logan can look for those books for Samuel that you have been going around the castle muttering about.'

'Are you sure?'

'Positive,' smiled Logan.

'Okay, if you insist...Dad, Benjamina is waving at you,' said Cassie, trying not to laugh as Reaver gave her something that could have been a wave back.

**-THE HAPPENINGS-**

As the months rolled on, the treasury became fuller and Cassie continued to work on defences, getting more money and helping the citizens of Albion. This included locking up Ferret, the man who kidnapped Elliot and finding a statue for a rich citizen, who then donated it to the treasury. Logan ended up tracking down all the books for Samuel and Reaver got all the gnomes.

During these months, Cassie noticed a few chances happening around the castle. For starters, everyone seemed to have forgiven Reaver and Logan for what they had done, including Sabine, and they could normally be found talking together like old friends. Logan's coldness towards Elliot had also disappeared, which resulted in him not glaring every time Elliot held Cassie. However, what took Cassie's interest most was the fact Kalin and Logan seemed to be spending a lot of time together. Most mornings they could be seen sitting in the gardens, talking quietly and sitting unnecessarily close to one another.

Cassie wished that the palace life could stay that way forever, but it was not to be for the year was up and the darkness was about to mount its attack.

When Cassie walked into the throne room, the morning before the invasion, she was surprised to see that it was full of people. She had expected it to be empty. As always, there was Logan and Reaver, Page and Kidd, Kalin, Elliot, Walter, Sabine and Boulder, and Ben and Swift, but there were some other familiar and unfamiliar faces their too. The mercenaries Saker, Ulva and Jimmy were there, along with three sand furies, a couple balverines -probably Father's guests, thought Cassie -, and a large woman with a hammer with a dark skinned man with blue lines all over his skin.

'So this is the famous Cassandra we have heard so much about,' said the woman with the hammer. 'So you weren't bragging then, Reaver. You're right, she is gorgeous. You look just like Sparrow.'

'Sparrow?' frowned Cassie.

'Mother,' said Logan. 'Cass, this is Hammer and Garth. Mother's friends, the Hero of Strength and Will.'

'Oh, it's a pleasure to meet you!' said Cassie.

'And you,' replied Garth.

'What are you all doing in here, and what are you doing here Saker?'

'We are here to fight the darkness with you,' shrugged Saker. 'That flag we gave you was a symbol of our allegiance and we will follow you into battle.'

'As for what we are all doing here; the darkness will reach Bowerstone by nightfall.' answered Walter.

'I can't believe that it has already been a year,' muttered Cassie, before going into queen mood. 'I want Bowerstone evacuated, especially the children, and I want all the guards and other warriors equipped and ready by nightfall!'

'Yes, my Queen,' said Walter, and with that, everyone went their separate ways to prepare.

Sabine and Boulder went off to prepare the Dwellers, Kalin to the Aurorans, Page and Kidd to the Resistance, Ben and Swift to the guards and soldiers, Saker, Jimmy and Ulva to the mercenaries, Reaver went to organise his balverine and sand fury friends, while Walter and Logan went to evacuate the people, leaving Elliot and Cassie alone in the throne room.

'Elliot, I want you and Gail to go to the Sanctuary and to stay there until it's all over.' said Cassie.

'What? No!' exclaimed Elliot. 'I can't just sit around and do nothing while you put your life in danger as well as our friends!'

'Elliot, you're no warrior and I won't be able to concentrate on the battle if I know that you are in danger.' Cassie said bluntly. 'It's bad enough Logan and Dad being out there without having to worry about you too.'

Elliot and Cassie just stared at each other before a defeated Elliot said, 'If that is your wish. Just promise me that you will come back to us.'

'I'll do my best,' smiled Cassie, before kissing him gently.

For the rest of the day, Cassie moved anxiously around the castle and Bowerstone, overseeing the preparations for the invasion. Then, as night was fast approaching, Cassie paced her shared room with Elliot and jumped when someone knocked on the door.

'Come in,' said Cassie.

The door opened to reveal Reaver.

'Dad? Is something wrong?' Cassie asked, slowly starting to panic.

'No, there's nothing wrong,' smile Reaver. He was holding a large parcel. 'No, I just wanted to give you this. Sort of an early birthday present for tomorrow...plus it's one of the many you will get from me tomorrow since I missed so many of your birthdays.'

'But you never forgot them.' said Cassie as she opened the present. 'Logan admitted to me last night that many of the presents he has given me have actually been from you...oh, wow. Thanks Dad. I absolutely love it.' It was a female warrior's suit. Its armour would definitely come in handy that night and when Cassie said that to Reaver, he admitted that was the reason he bought it for her and that Logan got one too...only his was a male warrior's suit.

'I've already lost Norman and your mother to that creature...I couldn't bear it if anything happened to you or Logan.' admitted Reaver.

'Logan and I aren't going anywhere, Dad.' promised Cassie as she went over and embrace him. This was the first hug that she could ever remember having with her father.

Reaver and Cassie broke apart as Logan came running in.

'It's here,' he said simply. He was already wearing his armour.

Reaver nodded, before leaving the room with Logan while Cassie got changed. Fifteen minutes later, Cassie was standing in Bowerstone with Ben, Walter and Albion guards and soldiers. They watched as black puddles of darkness and corruption began to appear before shadows appeared and began their attack.

'Charge!' yelled Cassie, drawing her sword and pointing it at the advancing enemies.

'Defend the city with your lives!' yelled Walter, to the soldiers and guards as he advanced upon the shadows.

Cassie ran past him and straight into the middle of the small army of shadows in their section, jumping onto the shoulders of one, breaking its neck, before jumping off it, over another one and plunging her sword into its back. Again and again she slaughtered the advancing shadows mostly through melee, but she did get a few with her pistol and the use of flaming blades.

Halfway through the slaughtering of the shadow quadrant, they heard a mighty growl echo around Bowerstone, startling what was left of Cassie's guards and soldiers.

'What was that?' exclaimed one of the soldiers.

'It's here! It's here!' yelled Walter, looking around for it. 'We have to find it. And we have to save our people!'

'Right,' said Cassie, focusing down on her will, before letting it out with a yell as flaming blades went soaring through the air and impaling the remaining shadows. 'Follow me!' she then ordered, leading the way through the streets of Bowerstone, only to then realise that it was only Ben and Walter left standing.

As Cassie ran along with Ben and Walter, she saw Reaver, Logan, Kalin and some soldiers fighting the shadow "children". Cassie looked away as Ben and Walter started to move on, but quickly looked back as she heard Logan scream, 'Kalin!'

Logan had Kalin in his arms and Cassie felt her stomach drop as Reaver shot any advancing shadows, protecting his son and Kalin. The soldiers also surrounded their prince to protect him. Cassie hoped that Kalin had just been knocked unconscious and that she was not dead.

'Come on, Cassie. Let's end this.' said Ben, looking pale as he tore his gaze away from the still Kalin.

Cassie nodded and hurried after him.

They knew when they were getting closer to the Crawler's location when its taunts became louder and more powerful, and more successful with Cassie, for as they were passing the Bowerstone general store, its voice echoed around the streets mockingly.

'Are you thinking of your loved ones now, _your majesty_?' It asked mockingly. 'How you will never see them again?'

'You're wrong! We will survive and see each other again!' yelled Cassie, though she secretly feared what the Crawler said to be true.

It laughed and a burning fire appeared in the general store windows.

Cassie looked in there before letting out a scream as she saw Elliot, Gail, Logan and Reaver all chained up in there screaming in pain and the fire burnt them.

'No!' screamed Cassie, running to the entrance to get them out.

'No, Cassie! Stop!' yelled Ben, grabbing her around the waist and trying to pull her back. 'It's an illusion!'

'Wh-what?' asked Cassie, ceasing in her struggles.

'Think about it. Elliot and Gail are in the Sanctuary so how can they be here?'

'You're right.' gasped Cassie, before her anger flashed in her green eyes. 'Let's end this now!'

Ben let her go and hurried after Walter, who was in front of them.

When they arrived at the main entrance of Bowerstone, Walter stopped and looked around.

'I can feel it. We're getting close to that thing.' muttered Walter. 'Where are you? Show yourself!' he ordered.

It obeyed, before forcing itself into Walter and taking control of his body.

'Walter?' Ben asked warily.

The now possessed Walter looked at him before sending him flying backwards into a wall, then advanced on Cassie, trying to kill her. Cassie blocked and dodged every blow but never made on in return. How could she fight Walter? She knew that they only way to destroy the darkness was to kill Walter, but she couldn't do it. Killing Walter would be like killing Logan or Elliot.

As Cassie dodged another attack, Walter was able to speak to her, momentarily gaining control of his body again.

'Take it out of me! Please!' Walter begged.

Cassie closed her eyes before making a deadly blow at Walter one the Crawler could not block and then Walter went flying to the ground where he then laid breathing coming painfully.

'Walter?' Cassie said warily, walking over to his broken body.

'Cass,' he said quietly, smiling up at her.

'I'm so sorry,' sobbed Cassie, kneeling next to him and holding the top half of his body.

'You took away the darkness.' Walter said gently. 'It's been inside me all this time, but it's light now. I can see the sky and it's light.'

Cassie didn't say anything. The sky was grey and it began to rain lightly.

Walter coughed weakly.

'I don't think I can fight anymore.' said Walter, taking in Cassie's face as she fought back tears.

'It's all over, Walter. We won. We beat it together.' said Cassie, being naive as to what kind of fighting he was talking about.

'Do you remember the stories I'd tell you when you were a child?' asked Walter. '"There was once a great Queen, the mightiest Hero of them all." Remember what you would say?'

'Teach me to be a Hero,' replied Cassie, voice thick with emotion.

Walter smiled.

'You've done me proud. You've always done me proud.' he said before closing his eyes and falling into an eternal sleep.

'Walter!' cried Cassie as she looked down at his peaceful and untroubled face. She could no longer hold in her tears. They began to pour down her face while her body began to shake. This victory was meant to bring joy, not sorrow.

Cassie started slightly when a gentle hand was placed on her shoulder. She looked up as Reaver knelt down beside her, his expression pained - he had been friends with Walter since Walter became a guard - before he embraced her and she cried into his chest. She was barely aware of Logan, Kalin - who Logan was supporting -, Sabine, Boulder, Ben, Swift, Page and Kidd's presence. Each of them felt devastated at the loss of a loyal friend and a great warrior.

Since Cassie was too upset with Walter's passing, Reaver went and got Elliot, Gail and Jasper to fill them in on everything.

The funeral was held at dawn the next morning, seeing as it was Walter's favourite time of day, and he was buried in the royal gardens where he use to stand to watch the sun rise.

'You know,' began Ben, breaking the silence that had accumulated between the friends, 'I think Walter would have liked it out here. He was always a fan of looking...tall and, um, stony.' He was referring to the huge statue of Walter that was above his grave. 'I can imagine what he would say if he was here now.'

'Shut up, Ben.' said an amused Cassie.

'Exactly.' laughed Ben.

'Well, it's time I returned to my own castle.' Sabine sighed, turning to Cassie. 'If you ever need to save the world from another abomination, you know where to find me.'

'You are a good friend, Sabine.' smiled Cassie. 'But remember, if you need any help, you also know where to find me. What about you, Kalin? Are you returning back to Aurora?'

'Yes, I shall return with the knowledge that we shall at last enjoy peace.' said Kalin, who was leaning against Logan, who, in turn, had his arm around her waist. 'My people shall never forget what you have done for them. We are proud to be part of Albion. We will see each other again, Cassie.'

'I hope so.'

'Believe me. We will.' said Kalin.

A confused Cassie then turned to Page.

'What will you do now, Page?

'I will continue to serve you the best way I can, but I belong down in the city, the people there will always need help.'

Cassie nodded.

'You have done, what I thought to be impossible.' said Logan, his voice full of pride as he looked over at her. 'You are the ruler I could never be. You don't need me anymore.' he added somewhat sadly. 'And Albion will heal easier without me.'

'What? What do you mean that Albion will heal easier without you?' demanded a startled Cassie. She looked over at Reaver who was looking at Logan calmly, though he had one of his famous smirks playing at the corners of his mouth.

'Exactly as it sounds.' answered Logan gently.

'But - but where will you go?'

'To Aurora...with Kalin.' said Logan, smiling down at the woman in his arms.

'Promise that you will visit?' Cassie said almost desperately.

'As long as you come and visit us as well.' smiled Logan.

'Deal.' laughed Cassie.

'Well queen. Old chum. Ruler supreme. Pal.' said Ben. It's my turn to say goodbye.'

'Don't tell me your going as well.' said a shocked Cassie as was Page and the other friends. 'I thought you were going to stick around and be a General?'

'I'm not cut out to be a General.' admitted Ben.

'Then what will you do?' asked a concerned Swift.

'I think I'd like to start travelling again or maybe,' he said, turning to look excitedly at Page, 'see if Page needs any help down in Industrial!'

The friends all looked at Page, knowing how much Ben could annoy her, and they were surprised to find her laughing.

'That's not the reaction I was expect - argh, where did you come from?' yelped Reaver, when Theresa appeared next to him. This startled everyone else.

'The Spire,' she said simply, before turning to a slightly amused Cassie. 'The world could have been devoid of colour and devoid of life. It is thanks to you that it isn't, and you did so without becoming a tyrant.' Logan moved uncomfortable. 'The people love you and you have banished the shadow of your brother's reign. You kept your promise to Sabine and his people when it could have been easier to turn your back on them. A noble gesture. You swore an oath to Page to better the lives of your people and you did so, even in the face of great danger. Without the strength to make those choices, we would not be standing here now. You are your mother's daughter.' she added, smiling somewhat sadly at Cassie.

Cassie blushed with pride before asking, 'Aren't you going to tell me my future?'

'The future will reveal itself when it is ready to do so,' replied Theresa, before disappearing.

'Hmm, I still would have preferred it if she was mute,' muttered Reaver, making them all chuckle slightly.

Cassie smiled and looked around at her friends and family. She had done it. She did the impossible and saved her kingdom, while suffering virtually no losses. Little did she know that at the current moment, historians were placing her amongst to greatest leaders of Albion, as well as one of the most loved and magnificent Heroes ever.

**-THE HAPPENINGS-**

As the years went by, one would have thought that the Crawler's invasion of Albion had never happened. That it had only been a terrible nightmare, but those who thought that would only be kidding themselves.

A lot had happened since the darkness had invaded Albion. Reaver had become River once more and ended up buy some farming land in Oakfield, though he was still in charge of the different industries in Albion. However, most of the money made went either to his children, his grandchildren, the treasury, donated or put in the Guild vaults encase of emergencies. He kept very little for himself.

Elliot became Cassie's king, though he spent more time cooking than he did working out policies and taxes. They also ended up having twin boys, both too adventurous for their own good, and who loved to annoy their older sister Gail. Logan, on the other hand, went to live permanently in Aurora with Kalin and eventually became its joint ruler when he married his first and oldest friend. Kalin and Logan also had a child. A beautiful daughter whom they named after a rare flower found only in the Auroran desert. Of course, Logan journeyed back to Albion to visit Cassie and his father from time to time.

Jasper remained in the Sanctuary, keeping a close eye on the map of Albion and Aurora, before letting Cassie know who needed her help. Sabine ruled the Dwellers as he did during Amy's reign, while Swift became the head of all military life and often advised Cassie on certain matters. Most surprising though was when Page admitted her feelings for Ben - who had spent most of his time, after the battle, helping her out - after he proposed to her.

Albion was once more peaceful and flourished once again, which was going to remain that way for many years to come...or was it?

**The End**

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><p><strong>Please review the story!<strong>

**Azaelia Silmarwen facebook page:** link on profile**  
>Written:<strong> 15 January 2012

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT CLAIM OWNERSHIP OVER THE ORIGINAL COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL IN THIS STORY. THIS IS A NON-PROFIT FANDUB CREATED BY FANS, FOR FANS. NO COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT INTENDED. FAIR USE ONLY.**


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